Lucio is a survivor of domestic abuse whose 2-year-old daughter fell down the stairs.
In a series of tweets Tuesday, Kim Kardashian called on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to grant clemency to domestic violence survivor Melissa Lucio, whose lawyers say she was responsible for killing her two-year-old daughter in 2007. Accepted "false". Unless Government Abbott intervened, Lucio would die on April 27, and she would be the first woman to die by hanging in Texas in decades.
According to Lucio's lawyers, their young daughter died in a tragic accident after falling from a steep staircase outside their apartment. During Lucio's aggressive interrogation, he denied abusing his child more than 100 times. But eventually, after hours of questioning, when police asked if he was responsible for some of his child's injuries, he told them, "I think I did."
Lucio's lawyers say his statement has been taken out of context and used unfairly as a confession by prosecutors. His legal team, as well as domestic violence advocates across the country, have argued that Lucio made this statement after being ravaged by trauma and grief over the loss of his child, as well as domestic abuse.
Kardashian noted Lucio's background as a survivor, and Lucio's lawyers, in their tweets demanding clemency, made a false confession to the effect. "She's been on death row for over 14 years for her daughter's death which was a tragic accident," Kardashian wrote. “Her 2-year-old daughter Maria fell down a flight of stairs and died two days later while taking a nap. The police took him into custody after he called for help.
Kardashian continued: "Melissa herself is a survivor of abuse and domestic violence and after hours of interrogation and falsely convicted. She wanted the interrogation to end, but the police made her confession. ... THIS There are stories like Melissa's that make me speak so loudly about the death penalty in general and why it should be banned when innocent people suffer. Then she shared a link to the Petition of Innocence Project, Thereby allowing people to contact Texas officials to demand clemency for Lucio.
Kardashian has previously used her platform to advocate for clemency and leniency for those in prison and those sentenced to death. In 2018, she called on then-President Trump to commute the life sentence of first-time drug offender Alice Johnson. Trump commuted Johnson's sentence shortly after. Kardashian called on the former president to pardon Brandon Bernard a day before Bernard's execution in 2020. "Knowing Brandon, I am heartbroken about this execution," she wrote in a tweet at the time. But this time Trump refused to intervene, and on December 10, Bernard was assassinated.
Shortly before Kardashian tweeted her support for Lucio, a jury member who sentenced Lucio to death called for a retrial. "I had no idea that her long history of physical and sexual abuse had left her vulnerable to false confessions by being subjected to aggressive interrogation tactics on the night of her daughter's death," the juror, Johnny Galvin, Jr., told a Sunday ed. was written in In the Houston Chronicle. According to Galvin, there were "so many other details" about Lucio's case that were "unmentioned," and he would have voted differently with this information.
Sandra Babcock, faculty director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and advisor to Lucio's legal team, told the Independent last year that Lucio's case is "an example of how the US legal system ignores the consequences of gender-based violence." Death penalty to women."
Our criminal legal system often criminalizes survivors—especially those who are women of color, like Lucio. As a result of what is often referred to as the sexual assault-to-prison pipeline, approximately 90% of imprisoned women survive sexual violence. Many are convicted of self-defense against an abuser, while others may face criminal charges if their abusive partner harms their children. Pregnant women can also be criminalized if they experience physical abuse and lose their pregnancies as a result.
Kardashian's advocacy for Lucio comes amid ongoing criticism of her often tone-deaf political statements, most recently calling on less privileged women to "get their asses up and work." Regardless, Kardashian has a huge platform and undeniable political influence, and she's using it well in her plea to save Lucio's life.