Texas woman wins stay of execution after even some former jurors rallied on her behalf

A Texas appeals court docket on Monday delayed the execution of a lady amid rising doubts about whether or not she fatally beat her two-year-old daughter in a case that has garnered the assist of lawmakers, celebrities and even a few of the jurors who sentenced her to dying.

The Texas Courtroom of Felony Appeals granted a request by Melissa Lucio’s attorneys for a keep of execution so a decrease court docket can assessment her claims that new proof in her case would exonerate her. It was not instantly recognized when the decrease court docket start reviewing her case.

Lucio, 52, had been set to be executed Wednesday by deadly injection for the 2007 dying of her two-year-old daughter Mariah in Harlingen, a metropolis of about 75,000 in Texas’s southern tip.

The execution keep was introduced minutes earlier than the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had been set to think about her clemency utility to both commute her dying sentence or grant her a 120-day reprieve. The board stated in an announcement it could “not be making a clemency advice at the moment.”

Lucio’s attorneys say new proof reveals that Mariah’s accidents, together with a blow to the pinnacle, have been attributable to a fall down a steep staircase, and lots of lawmakers and celebrities equivalent to Kim Kardashian, an advocate for prison justice reform, and Amanda Knox — an American whose homicide conviction within the dying of a British pupil in Italy was overturned — have rallied to Lucio’s trigger. Prosecutors, although, keep that the woman was the sufferer of kid abuse.

Almost half of the jurors who voted to convict her had referred to as for her upcoming execution to be halted and for her to get a brand new trial.

What are the problems?

Lucio’s attorneys say her capital homicide conviction was based mostly on an unreliable and coerced confession that was the results of relentless questioning over a interval of hours, throughout which she asserted her innocence dozens of instances. They are saying Lucio wasn’t allowed to current proof questioning the validity of her confession.

Her attorneys additionally contend that unscientific and false proof misled jurors into believing Mariah’s accidents might have solely been attributable to bodily abuse and never by medical issues from a extreme fall.

“I knew that what I used to be accused of doing was not true. My youngsters have all the time been my world and though my decisions in life weren’t good I might have by no means damage any of my youngsters in such a approach,” Lucio wrote in a letter to Texas lawmakers.

Cameron County District Lawyer Luis Saenz, whose workplace prosecuted the case, has stated he disagrees with Lucio’s attorneys’ claims that new proof would exonerate her. Prosecutors say Lucio had a historical past of drug abuse and at instances had misplaced custody of a few of her 14 youngsters.

Throughout a typically contentious Texas Home committee listening to on Lucio’s case this month, Saenz initially pushed again on requests to make use of his energy to cease the execution, earlier than later saying he would intervene if the courts did not act.

“I do not disagree with all of the scrutiny this case is getting. I welcome that,” Saenz stated.

Armando Villalobos was the county’s district legal professional when Lucio was convicted in 2008, and Lucio’s attorneys allege that he pushed for a conviction to assist his re-election bid. In 2014, Villalobos was sentenced to 13 years in federal jail for a bribery scheme associated to providing beneficial prosecutorial choices.

Her attorneys additionally say Lucio’s sentence was disproportionate to what her husband and Mariah’s father, Robert Alvarez, acquired. He bought a four-year sentence for inflicting damage to a baby by omission despite the fact that he additionally was accountable for Mariah’s care, Lucio’s attorneys argue.

Who’s rallying on her behalf?

Greater than half the members of the Texas legislature had requested that her execution be halted. A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers travelled this month to Gatesville, the place the state homes feminine dying row inmates, and prayed with Lucio.

“Simply understanding that Ms. Lucio’s case is on the market is sufficient to trigger me to lose numerous sleep,” Republican consultant Jeff Leach informed a Dallas tv station final week.

“We must not be in any respect afraid to ask questions and ensure we’re not probably executing an harmless fellow Texan.”

5 of the 12 jurors who sentenced Lucio and one alternate juror have questioned their authentic resolution and requested she get a brand new trial.

“She was not evil. She was simply struggling.… If we had heard passionately from the defence defending her not directly, we’d have reached a distinct resolution,” juror Johnny Galvan wrote in an affidavit expressing doubts about her conviction.

Lucio’s trigger additionally has the backing of religion leaders equivalent to Sister Helen Prejean, the activist who’s lobbied for many years for the abolition of the dying penalty, and the case was featured on HBO’s Final Week Tonight with John Oliver.

Lucio’s household and supporters have been travelling all through Texas and holding rallies and screenings of a 2020 documentary about her case, The State of Texas vs. Melissa, which has streamed on Hulu within the U.S. and been broadcast on SuperChannel in Canada.

How an execution will be stopped or appealed

Appeals looking for to cease Lucio’s execution have been pending in state and federal courts.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles can hear a request to both commute a dying sentence to life imprisonment or grant an 120-day execution reprieve to an applicant.

Any resolution by the board to commute her sentence or grant the reprieve would wish the governor’s approval. Abbott, who has granted clemency to just one dying row inmate since taking workplace in 2015, additionally has the authority to unilaterally problem a 30-day execution keep. Abbott commuted a dying sentence to life with out parole for Thomas (Bart) Whitaker, who was convicted of fatally capturing his mom and brother. Whitaker’s father was additionally shot however survived and led the trouble to spare his son’s life.

Ladies offenders are hardly ever executed

Ladies have accounted for under 3.6 per cent of the greater than 16,000 confirmed executions within the U.S. relationship again to the colonial interval within the 1600s, in line with knowledge from the Washington-based Loss of life Penalty Data Middle, a nonprofit that opposes capital punishment.

Because the U.S. Supreme Courtroom reinstated the dying penalty in 1976, 17 girls have been executed all through the nation, in line with the info. Texas has put extra girls to dying — six — than some other state, although not since 2014. Oklahoma is subsequent, with three, and Florida has executed two.

The federal authorities has executed one lady since 1976. Lisa Montgomery, of Kansas, acquired a deadly injection in January 2021 after the Trump administration resumed executions within the federal system following a 17-year hiatus. The Justice Division has halted executions once more below the Biden administration.