Sabrina Van Tassel, director of the acclaimed 2020 documentary The State of Texas vs Melissa, will be the first to tell you, her film didn’t uncover new evidence about the case of Melissa Lucio, the female death row inmate in Texas who has inspired a nationwide innocence movement with support from the likes of Kim Kardashian.
Rather, the movie showed the many red flags in the prosecution that were always in plain sight. And for people like Melissa Lucio in the justice system — poor, Latinx, victims of abuse — even getting a second look is a rare, radical change in the status quo.
