00:00My name is Melissa Elizabeth Lucio, I'm 48 years old, I'm the first hispanic woman on death row.
00:08You can only be on death row if you're poor, black, hispanic, or mentally disabled.
00:16If you are not one of these four, you know, things, you will never be on death row.
00:30She was convicted because of what she represents. She was someone that, you know, America did not
00:42want. The only thing that got Melissa Lucio on death row is her coarse confession. She was accused
00:52of murdering her daughter, her two-year-old daughter, abusing her for weeks, months, until
01:01she passed away. Basically what they were doing is they were trying to make me admit that I was
01:09the one responsible for her fall. The interrogation continued for maybe six, six, seven hours
01:17until three o'clock in the morning. This is your chance to set it straight because right now it
01:22looks like capital murder. Right now it looks like you're a cold-blooded killer.
01:27Now were you a cold-blooded killer or were you a frustrated mother who just took it out on her?
01:32We knew somebody did it. We're trying to find out who did it. If it wasn't you, I don't think
01:37somebody crept in there at the middle of the middle of the night and went up to your child
01:41and specifically singled her out so he could bite her on the back. Please forgive me. It happens,
01:48okay? We all make mistakes. We all make mistakes. We all get upset. We already know what happened.
01:55We already know what happened. It was only a four-day trial. So for four days she only had
02:01people testifying against her. The kids kept saying that she had fallen down the stairs,
02:06but nobody listened to the kids. And the kids were not even, you know, asked to testify at
02:11trial. So all the jury saw were horrible pictures of a dead bruised child and a mother who admitted.
02:22I started the film with everything that is against her. Her coerced confession,
02:30the pictures of the child, her past. She was not a perfect mom. She was a very flawed character.
02:39She was someone who had been sexually abused when she was a child. She had been systematically
02:46abused by the men in her life. And she was someone who had a history of drug abuse. And she had way
02:52too many children. So all that combined was just completely worked against her. And people were
03:00just like, okay, let's get rid of Melissa Lucio. I went down to Gatesville in Texas
03:07and to find her family. And I managed to find them. And when I saw them the very first time,
03:15they said to me, you're the first person who has come to ask us any question about Melissa in 13
03:21years. I investigated the political part. And I found out that the DA in her case, Armando Villa
03:29Lobos, was in the middle of, it was election year. And he was actually in turmoil because he had
03:38problems, you know, with other cases. So he needed, you know, something big, something big, you know,
03:45to save his reputation and be reelected. Now, Armando Villa Lobos was investigated by the FBI.
03:53And he was sentenced to prison. He is serving 13 years as we speak. And he was someone known
04:06for bribing judges, bribing lawyers, getting rich people to pay him. And the poor people
04:13would be the statistics that he needed. Right now, her last hope is the U.S. Supreme Court.
04:20A cert petition was filed. And we are waiting for an answer. Out of all the places that have
04:27the death penalty in the U.S., Texas is by far the state that executes the most.
04:33And they have an amazing number of people on death row. And they will do everything
04:41for them to be executed. So getting someone out of death row is very hard, almost impossible.
04:50So we hope that the Supreme Court is going to hear the case of Melissa Lucio. If they don't,
04:58because they only hear like about 1 percent of all cases, it will be up to the public to,
05:07you know, have the name of Melissa Lucio, you know, known to as many people as possible.
05:15No, we do not want to execute an innocent woman.
05:19And yes, we need to end the death penalty because there are many Melissa Lucios.
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