For eleven years, in the United States, Melissa Elizabeth Lucio has been locked in a Texas prison. She was sentenced to death for killing her daughter according to US authorities. Sabrina Van Tasel, a Franco-American director, met this woman and produced a documentary on her story: “The State of Texas against Melissa”.
In this documentary by Sabrina Van Tasel, a Franco-American director, recounting the life of Melissa Elizabeth Lucio, sentenced to death for having killed her daughter according to American justice, one moment is even more poignant than the others. The one, where the 48-year-old woman announces, with tears in her eyes, that she has been waiting for eleven years on death row in a Texas prison, having left behind her 14 children.
The first meeting between Sabrina Van Tasel and Melissa Elizabeth Lucio dates back to 2017. “At first it looked like a vulgar case of child abuse where a poor, drugged mother lashes out at her child.”, says the director. But the latter obtained an exceptional document: the seven hours of interrogation of Melissa Elizabeth Lucio in front of the police. “This woman who had never been arrested by the police before had no chance of making it”, adds Sabrina Van Tasel. During the four days of trial, no family member or children were allowed to testify. According to the director, there is a collusion between Melissa Elizabeth Lucio’s lawyer and the prosecutor who accuses her.