Now that Melissa Lucio is set to be put to death by lethal injection on April 27th, 2022, her third oldest son John Lucio is working tirelessly to help free his mom.
By Nisie Govea Jimenez
TAKE ACTION TODAY
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/melissa-lucio-innocent-woman-on-death-row-in-texas-2
During an interview with Alberto Govea on the Que Pasa Today podcast, John Lucio stressed to listeners how his mom was taken advantage of by the system and is now suffering because of corruption. Was Melissa Lucio an easy target for men like a court-appointed attorney Peter Gilman who just wanted to “Play Politics?” Maybe she was, and how someone like Mellissa Lucio could fall victim to this sort of abuse by the legal system. Sadly, it did not happen overnight.
Melissa Lucio began her long and tragic journey of abuse at the age of 6. Her sisters were unaware of the abuse, but her mom admits that Melissa told her her stepdad sexually abused her. Her mom did not believe young Melissa because she was a child. Melissa Lucio was sexually abused until she was 16; she finally escaped her abusers by becoming a child bride. However, the abuse was only continued at the hands of her new husband. Eventually, the pain she suffered would lead her to severe drug addiction, and by then, she was already the mother of 14 children.
Her life became a never-ending struggle. Even after leaving her ex-husband, her new boyfriend was just as abusive to her. She would continue to do cocaine and drugs to cope with the stresses of being a battered mom of 14 kids. Melissa’s brother acknowledged she had a drug problem in the documentary but explained how she would hide in the bathroom for hours so her children did not see her high on drugs. The drug addiction only complicated her bad situation even more. While locked in a bathroom, the children were neglected and often went without supervision. Child protective services had no choice but to step in. After Melissa’s children were seen sleeping in the park, authorities discovered she was homeless. She was often evicted from her home, so CPS removed some of her children from custody. During the CPS investigation, she was accused of neglecting the children’s needs by not providing them with a place to live and having a drug addiction. Authorities never accused her of physically harming the children. However, after two years, she was still able to regain custody of all her children.
Despite regaining custody of her children two years later, Melissa Lucio’s financial situation had not improved very much. She was still moving from place to place, and the children usually shared one bedroom. Moreover, according to her daughter Selina Lucio, her mom was not the same after everyone was back together under the same roof. Selina Lucio has been very vocal from her TIK TOK account @5thof14 and claims that she witnessed her mother abusing her youngest sister Mariah on more than one occasion. She also said she believes some of the bruising found on Mariah resembles the rings her mom would wear. Selina also said the abuse was never towards any of her other siblings. Nevertheless, John Lucio, the third oldest son, says his mom did not abuse Mariah. It is possible that Melissa did abuse Mariah but did she directly cause her death or was each unfortunate event the connecting piece to a puzzle that would reveal the most grizzly of images when finished?
