Relatives of Melissa Lucio request that her execution be suspended, on February 7, in the Administrative Court of Brownsville, Texas.Miguel Roberts (AP)
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stayed Melissa Lucio's execution scheduled for this Wednesday.
The judges have ordered the Cameron County court hearing the case to consider new evidence presented by the legal team representing the 52-year-old woman.
Lucio, born in the United States and of Mexican origin, was sentenced to death 14 years ago for the death of her daughter Mariah de Ella, two.
Her lawyers, however, defend that the girl died of a brain injury two days after having accidentally fallen down some stairs and that "faulty evidence" was presented at the trial that confused the jury.
"I thank God for my life," Lucio said in a statement Monday, "I appreciate that the court has given me the opportunity to live and prove my innocence."
“Mariah is in my heart today and always.
I am grateful to have more days to be the mother of my children and the grandmother of my grandchildren," continues the letter released by the Innocence Project, an organization that works to "avoid wrongful convictions" and has represented Lucio since January.
Lucio has always defended his innocence.
After her daughter's death, he repeatedly denied harming her.
However, she was convicted based on a statement that, according to his lawyers, was "forced" and "false."
“I don't know what they want me to say.
I guess I did it”, she pronounced before the agents in an interrogation that lasted five hours, until three in the morning of February 18, 2007. With new evidence, at the end of March,
After reviewing the file, the jury determined that four of the claims made by the defense "meet the requirements" to return to the court of first instance "for a review of the merits," as explained in the order issued by the highest court. Texas prison two days before Lucio's scheduled execution date.
The judges must now consider whether the woman "is really innocent";
if “were it not for the use of false testimony by the State, no jury would have convicted her”;
if there is “scientific evidence not previously available” and if “the State suppressed favorable evidence”.
Vanessa Potkin, one of Lucio's lawyers, has celebrated the court's decision.
“The new evidence of his innocence has never been considered.
The suspension allows us to continue fighting alongside Melissa to overturn her wrongful conviction," Potkin said.
Another of her lawyers, Sandra Babcock, added that "as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence, Melissa's voice and experiences have never been valued."
"If the district court hears all the evidence of Melissa's innocence, and the gender bias that infected the police investigation and prosecution of her, we are confident that she will return home to her family," she said. .
Lucio's 14 children – two of them were born after she was imprisoned – have always defended their mother's innocence.
“My mom is not a child abuser.
In the reports of the Child Protection Service there is nothing that says that she has mistreated her children, "John, the third of Lucio's children, told EL PAÍS this Friday.
During the trial, the Prosecutor's Office argued that Lucio had lost custody of his children on several occasions and that he had a history of drug use, but at no time did he present physical evidence showing that the woman was violent with the children.
Instead, different experts consulted by the defense have considered that the woman "was relentlessly pressured and extensively manipulated" to confess that she had hurt her daughter.
At least five of the jurors who convicted and sentenced her to death supported a stay of execution, including the president, who stated: "Knowing what I know now, I don't think she should be executed."
In addition, 100 Democratic and Republican legislators had sent letters to the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, asking him to stop it.
More than 220 organizations and more than 130 religious leaders had also joined the claim.
Texas is the third state with the most death sentences in the United States, after California and Florida.
In total, 199 people from that territory await on death row, according to the non-profit organization Death Penalty Information Center.
Although in recent years, different States have abolished capital punishment, the measure still persists in 27. Since 1989, 258 women have been exonerated, according to data from the National Registry of Exonerations of the United States cited by the Innocence Project.
71% of women exonerated in the last three decades had been convicted of crimes that never happened.
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