In 2007, Melissa Lucio's 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, fell down the stairs and died of internal injuries. From the beginning of the investigation into Mariah's death, Texas officials made assumptions that Lucio was an abusive mother and never considered all of the evidence concerning Mariah's death, nor allowed Lucio to mount a full-fledged defense. Lucio was eventually convicted of murder.

As is typical for women in prison and on death row, Lucio had experienced lifelong sexual abuse and domestic violence, and she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), clinical depression, and battered woman syndrome. Texas prosecutors claim that they were able to get Lucio to confess to harming Mariah, but health experts on her defense team say that she was most likely coerced to do so as a survival tactic, due to her mental health state and passivity.

As survivors and advocates, we know that women have been victims of this type of coercion before. We've won clemency for sexual violence survivors, including Cyntoia Brown of Tennessee and Tondalao Hall of Oklahoma. We can do it again for Melissa Lucio!

Tell Texas Governor Greg Abbott: Melissa Lucio is a poor, single, abused mother, not a murderer. Grant her clemency immediately!