I was coerced into confessing to murder in case with eerie similarities to Melissa Lucio – here are tactics police use

A DEATH row inmate was convicted on a coerced confession during a five-hour interrogation and false medical testimonies, her lawyer said.

Now, Melissa Lucio, a mom of 13, has until the end of the month to convince the Texas governor to grant her clemency and at least allow a jury to hear new evidence.

A jury found Lucio guilty of capital murder in the 2007 death of her two-year-old daughter Mariah, who fell down 14 steep steps.

Two hours after her daughter was pronounced dead, police interrogated Lucio, who was pregnant with twins for five hours, her lawyer Vanessa Potkin told The Sun.

"They showed her pictures of her dead child, screamed at her, and called her a bad mother," Potkin said. "When they're interrogating for that long they aren't leaving without a confession."

After denying the allegations over 100 times during the lengthy interrogation, Lucio told investigators, "I guess I did it."

That's a common law enforcement tactic that leads to false confessions, said Jeffrey Deskovic, who went through a similar situation in New York State.

Deskovic was interrogated for seven hours in 1990 for a rape and murder that he didn't commit while being food-deprived.

"As each hour passed, my fear increased more and more, and you just get so worn down. You feel hopeless," Deskovic told The Sun.

"There was no end in sight, and I had no will left. All I was thinking was I need to get out of here."

He said the police kept feeding him details about the crime and suggested motives that he "regurgitated back into a story I made up just to get out of there."

That's what Potkin said happened to Lucio in 2007.

Lucio suffered a lifetime of sexual abuse and domestic violence, "which made her especially vulnerable to the police’s coercive interrogation tactics," Potkin said.

The Innocence Project lawyer said police continued to feed Lucio facts that she spit back at them to end the interrogation.

They showed her pictures of her dead child, screamed at her, and called her a bad mother.

Vanessa Potkin

Deskovic, who went on to become a lawyer after his conviction was overturned and wrote his thesis on false confessions, said law enforcement questions are supposed to be open-ended.

"You let the suspect fill in the blanks," he said. "The river is supposed to flow one way; the suspect to police."

During the interrogation, she was grieving and in shock, sleep-deprived, pregnant, and "vulnerable to the aggressive, intimidating and psychologically manipulative tactics" of the police, according to the clemency application.

It was 3 am when she "confessed," Potkin said.

FOUR JURORS NOW HAVE CONCERNS

The clemency application included a new forensic analysis that contradicts a physician's testimony that said it was "the absolute worst" case of child abuse he's ever seen in 36 years of practice.

According to the original indictment filed in 2007, Lucio's daughter has bruises all over her body, bite marks on her back, and a broken armed that healed two to seven weeks before her death.

The autopsy showed Mariah had a blood coagulation disorder caused by the fall, which caused the bruising, Potkin said.

And there's no scientific basis to support the bite mark testimony, she said.

But "there was a rush to judgment," and the girl's death was ruled a murder before the autopsy even began, Potkin said.

With this evidence in mind, four jurors said they have "grave concerns" about evidence withheld from them during the trial and would support relief, according to the clemency application.

A fifth juror, who was an alternate during the case, also supported relief.

'SPARE THE LIFE OF OUR MOTHER'

Lucio's 13 children wrote a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott, who have to give a recommendation for clemency and approve the application, respectively.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles Clemency Office declined to comment, and Abbott didn't return a request for comment.

"The death of our sister Mariah and the prosecution of our parents tore our family apart. The wounds never fully healed. They probably never will," her kids said in the letter.

"We ask you not to tear those wounds open again. Please give us the chance for closure. Please give us a chance for peace. Please allow us to reconcile with Mariah's death and remember her without fresh pain, anguish, and grief.

"Please spare the life of our mother."

HOW MARIAH FELL DOWN THE STAIRS

Lucio was in the process of moving when Mariah got through a screen door and fell down the stairs, Potkin said.

She didn't have visible injuries except for a few minor scrapes, according to Potkin, but two days later Mariah was sleepy and lethargic.

"She took a nap but wasn't making any noise, so Melissa checked on her and found she wasn't breathing," Potkin said.

She called 911, and the paramedics tried to save her but couldn't.

At this point, they were in their new home, which had only three steps, so the paramedics didn't believe her story, Lucio's lawyer said.

"That began the rush to judgment."