Texas death row execution Melissa

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday granted a stay of execution for Melissa Lucio, her attorneys announced in a statement, halting her execution ...

But Lucio's attorneys said she only "vaguely" indicated she was responsible for her daughter's injuries and never confessed to being responsible for Mariah's death. But none of the CPS records, her attorneys say, indicate any of the children ever reported being abused by Lucio. The people of Texas are entitled to a new, fair trial," Tivon Schardl, one of Lucio's attorneys said in a statement. And authorities, plagued by a misunderstanding about the fall, ignored or discounted evidence that might have proven her innocence, Lucio's attorneys say. Lucio also argued the state relied on false testimony and suppressed evidence favorable to her defense. "I am grateful the Court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence.

Mexican American woman, 52, who was due to be put to be death on Wednesday, wins time for court to consider new evidence.

In the House letter, the lawmakers pointed out that Lucio was treated by prosecutors in a completely different way to her husband, who was also responsible for Mariah’s care. Sandra Babcock, one of Lucio’s legal team and a professor at Cornell law school, said that the court’s decision paved the way for a new trial which would allow a jury to hear evidence that was not presented at her original trial in 2008. Leach has been at the forefront of efforts by Texas lawmakers to persuade the authorities to postpone the execution.

Lawyers for Melissa Lucio say she was coerced into confessing and was falsely convicted of killing her toddler daughter.

Lucio is scheduled to be executed on 27 April for the death of her daughter, Mariah, on 17 February 2007. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison. After almost six hours of late night interrogation, in which Lucio said she was innocent more than 100 times, Lucio finally said: “I don’t know what you want me to say,” she told them. Texas has executed more women than any other state, since the US supreme court brought back the death penalty in 1976, reported AP. Of the 17 women who have been executed nationwide, six have been put to death in Texas. Calls to stay Lucio’s execution have received rare bipartisan support from Texas state officials, with more than half the members in the Texas house and senate asking for her execution to be halted. Nearly half the jury members who sentenced a Texas woman to death for the murder of her young child in 2007 are asking for her execution to be halted and for her to receive a new trial.

HOUSTON (AP) — Nearly half of the jurors who sentenced a Texas woman to die for the 2007 death of one of her 14 children called for her execution to be ...

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 17 women have been executed throughout the nation, according to the data. Armando Villalobos was the county’s district attorney when Lucio was convicted in 2008, and Lucio’s lawyers allege that he pushed for a conviction to help his reelection bid. A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers traveled this month to Gatesville, where the state houses female death row inmates, and prayed with Lucio. It’s rare in the U.S., according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. If ultimately put to death, Lucio would be the first Latina ever executed by Texas and the first woman the state has put to death since 2014. Abbott commuted a death sentence to life without parole for Thomas “Bart” Whitaker, who was convicted of fatally shooting his mother and brother. The Justice Department has halted executions again under the Biden administration. The federal government has executed one woman since 1976. They say Lucio wasn’t allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession. “I knew that what I was accused of doing was not true. Prosecutors, though, maintain that the girl was the victim of child abuse. It was not immediately known when the lower court would begin reviewing her case.

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas issued a stay of execution Monday and sent that case back to a lower court for review. Lucio had been scheduled for ...

You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic.