The State of Texas vs. Melissa

Name: The State of Texas vs. Melissa
Genre: Documentary
Released: October 20, 2020
Duration: 98 min
Rating: 62

2020

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Generally favorable reviews based on 4 Critic Reviews

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The State Of Texas Vs. Melissa

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Movie Details & Credits

FilmRise | Release Date (Streaming): October 20, 2020 | Not Rated

Summary: Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in Texas. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and now faces her last appeal.

Director: Sabrina Van Tassel

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 98 min

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Critic Reviews

Lorry Kikta

Apr 17, 2021

Director Sabrina Van Tassel does an excellent job of drawing in the audience to the labyrinthian case of Melissa Lucio. Read full review

Sarah Marloff

Apr 17, 2021

It’s the commonality of Lucio’s story and case that makes Van Tassel’s documentary more impactful. Read full review

The Film Stage John Fink

Apr 17, 2021

The film problematically never quite commits to being one thing: bouncing around the investigation, being work of advocacy, and a study of family violence. In doing so, it lacks the kind of emotional impact and outrage it ought to have. Read full review

John DeFore

Apr 17, 2021

The doc pads out its assertions of malfeasance with personal scenes that fall flat, never giving much insight into its subject's personality or deepening the sympathy we may have started off with for the children she left behind. Read full review

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UncleWillard

May 24, 2021

The documentary meanders about, never really deciding what it is trying to tell us. There's no hard evidence that Melissa did not cause the injuries to her daughter. Even if you take into account the narrative of the child falling at least once, it doesn't explain multiple injuries ofThe documentary meanders about, never really deciding what it is trying to tell us. There's no hard evidence that Melissa did not cause the injuries to her daughter. Even if you take into account the narrative of the child falling at least once, it doesn't explain multiple injuries of varying degrees of healing. This child was abused by its drug-addicted mother, and it would appear that all these kids benefitted, as shocking as that may sound, from foster care. The real tragedy is that this documentary doesn't even try to address the elephant in the room; this woman had too many kids. 14! Having 14 children in this day and age IS child abuse. There is no way she was equipped to handle 2-3 children, given her drug abuse and inability to provide for them. How could she ever raise 14 kids without a fatality? The answer is she couldn't, and the poor child paid for it.

The child is the second tragedy that this documentary never fully focuses on. We never got a clear cut examination of the trial and the evidence. All we get is excuses for the mother and how sad it is that she is on death row. Who is death row for if not for people responsible for the deaths of their own children? This is a failure of a documentary to such a degree that it deserves its own response focusing on the child and how unfettered and unlicensed birth rates contribute to the terrors these children face at the hands of their own families. As Keanu Reeves says in Parenthood, "you need a license to drive a car or own a dog. Hell, you even need a license to catch a fish, but they'll let any butt-reeming **** be a parent." Truer words. The failure of the state is not demanding a cap on how many children one family, especially a single parent, can raise. I have no tears for Melissa. She is at worst a murderer of her own child, and at best an irresponsible member of society who refused to govern her very own body for her own best interest.… Expand

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