The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a request by Melissa Lucio’s lawyers for a stay of execution so a lower court can review her claims that new evidence in her case would exonerate her.
JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press
1of3In this undated photograph, Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio is holding one of her sons, John. Lucio is set to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. Prosecutors say Lucio fatally beat Mariah but Lucio has long denied that, saying her daughter died from injuries sustained during a fall down a flight of stairs. Her lawyers say Lucio’s history of sexual and physical abuse led to her giving an unreliable confession. They hope to persuade the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott to either grant an execution reprieve or commute her sentence. (Photo courtesy of the family of Melissa Lucio via AP)Show MoreShow Less2of3In this undated photograph, Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio is holding her daughter Mariah, while one of her other daughters, Adriana, stands next to them. Lucio is set to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of Mariah. Prosecutors say Lucio fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter but Lucio has long denied that, saying Mariah died from injuries sustained during a fall down a flight of stairs. Her lawyers say Lucio’s history of sexual and physical abuse led to her giving an unreliable confession. They hope to persuade the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott to either grant an execution reprieve or commute her sentence. (Photo courtesy of the family of Melissa Lucio via AP)Show MoreShow Less3of3
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas appeals court on Monday delayed the execution of a woman amid growing doubts about whether she fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter in a case that has garnered the support of lawmakers, celebrities and even some of the jurors who sentenced her to death.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a request by Melissa Lucio’s lawyers for a stay of execution so a lower court can review her claims that new evidence in her case would exonerate her. It was not immediately known when the lower court begin reviewing her case.
Lucio has been set for lethal injection on Wednesday for the 2007 death of her daughter Mariah in Harlingen, a city of about 75,000 in Texas’ southern tip.
The execution stay was announced minutes before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had been set to consider her clemency application to either commute her death sentence or grant her a 120-day reprieve.
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