The State of Texas vs. Melissa

2020

1h 38m

Documentary

List

83%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

22%

Audience Score

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Filmmaker Sabrina Van Tassel follows the life journey of Melissa Lucio, a Texas death row inmate who's facing her last appeal.

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Sarah Marloff

Austin Chronicle

Though it's a gut-wrenching story, The State of Texas vs. Melissa, works hard to offer viewers the smallest semblance of hope.

Rated: 3.5/5

Oct 23, 2020

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Robert Daniels

812filmreviews

The State of Texas vs. Melissa, is a heart wrenching and urgent example of justice rendered incorrectly.

Apr 26, 2020

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John DeFore

Hollywood Reporter

Though any effort to draw attention to a wrongful death sentence deserves some kind of support, this one seems unlikely to have any effect on its subject's case one way or the other.

Apr 24, 2020

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Joanne Laurier

World Socialist Web Site

The State of Texas vs. Melissa is a telling and compelling snapshot of the brutality of everyday life in capitalist America.

Jul 5, 2021

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Carla Hay

Culture Mix

The State of Texas vs. Melissa does an impressive job of presenting different perspectives of this very complicated case. It's a cautionary tale of how difficult it can be for defendants to overcome a recanted confession.

Nov 30, 2020

Full Review

Todd Jorgenson

Cinemalogue

Nobody deserves the sort of shoddy judicial treatment that has landed Melissa Lucio on death row, but this unfocused documentary's eagerness to generate sympathy for its subject clouds its social-justice message.

Nov 7, 2020

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Audience Member

I think it's crazy How close it came to her due date and it took so long for them to investigate this whole situation.🤬

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The documentary was biased. They did not report the below from the actual beginning of the court documents. The below are statements from first hand witnesses The evidence presented in this case shows that, at about 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 17, 2007, paramedics were dispatched to an apartment where appellant lived with nine of her children and an adult male named Robert Alvarez, who was the father of at least seven of these children and whom appellant referred to as her husband. One of the paramedics (Nester) testified that, when the paramedics entered the apartment, they found Mariah unattended and lying on her back in the middle of the floor not breathing and with no pulse. Nester observed that appellant's "distant" and not "overly distressed" behavior was "so far out of the ordinary" that he "put it into the report." Nester also testified that he "noted the fact that [appellant] was not—she wasn't even within arm's reach of the child much less trying to gasp [sic], hold her, or trying to do anything to hold them [sic]." Doctors at the hospital noticed that Mariah's body had been "severely abused"; in addition to bruises "covering her body, there were bite marks on her back, one of her arms had been broken probably about two to seven weeks The chief forensic pathologist for Cameron and Hidalgo Counties (Farley), who conducted Mariah's autopsy on Monday, February 19, 2007, testified that Mariah's cause of death was "blunt force head trauma," which would have occurred within 24 hours prior to her death, and it would have been immediately apparent that Mariah was in distress and in need of medical attention. Farley testified that Mariah suffered "multiple contusions" to her head area and that "blunt force head trauma ... basically means, beat about the head with something—an object, a hand, a fist, or slammed." Farley testified that these injuries would not have been caused by falling down some stairs and that this was the most severe case of child abuse she had ever seen.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Extremely biased and one sided. Despite the evidence showing that Melissa is responsible for her daughter's death, very few pieces of evidence were presented in the movie. And the ones that were, were twisted and/or explained away. The movie even allowed Melissa to slander her other daughter(a minor at the time) and suggest she was responsible for the death of her sibling with NO evidence at all to support the claim. The entire movie was just a feel-sorry-for-Melissa-she's-innocent spiel.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I have to tell you I couldn't get past 20 minutes of this "documentary". Where are the facts? It was horribly boring and terribly made. Melissa was at the best a horrible mother that allowed her child to be abused and murdered, or at worst a murderer. I can't make a conclusion, because this film is a giant piece of crap.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This was just made to try to get some people's attention for a guilty woman. I don't understand how anyone can sit there and say the system screwed her over. The entire documentary is attempting (and failing) to pick apart the people that worked her case. But they quickly overlook how much she neglected her children. That woman had the audacity to blame her other child and say she didn't love her sister because it was from another man. Are you sure it wasn't because she was a terrible mother? So bad that she had her kids taken away from her before she killed her own baby? What kind of child would say she is a SECOND mother to that baby? She was a junkie with 14 kids no respect or love in her heart. Her mother isn't any better. This made me sick to my stomach and I really hope she gets the death penalty.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A lot of missing information, we don't know what really happened. But if she did kill her daughter she deserves the death penalty and more.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

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Sabrina Van Tassel

Director

Philippe De Bourbon

Producer

Isaac Sharry

Producer

Sabrina Van Tassel

Producer

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Synopsis

Filmmaker Sabrina Van Tassel follows the life journey of Melissa Lucio, a Texas death row inmate who's facing her last appeal.

Director: Sabrina Van Tassel
Producer: Philippe De Bourbon, Isaac Sharry, Sabrina Van Tassel
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 18, 2020
Runtime: 1h 38m

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