Texas appeals court delays execution of Melissa Lucio

HOUSTON — 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.

“I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence,” Lucio said in a statement provided by her lawyers. “Mariah is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren. I will use my time to help bring them to Christ. I am deeply grateful to everyone who prayed for me and spoke out on my behalf.”

“It would have shocked the public’s conscience for Melissa to be put to death based on false and incomplete medical evidence for a crime that never even happened,” said Vanessa Potkin, one of Lucio’s attorneys who is with the Innocence Project. “All of the new evidence of her innocence has never before been considered by any court. The court’s stay allows us to continue fighting alongside Melissa to overturn her wrongful conviction.”

A spokeswoman for Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, whose office prosecuted the case, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Saenz has said he disagrees with Lucio’s lawyers’ claims that new evidence would exonerate her.

Prosecutors have maintained that the girl was the victim of abuse and noted that her body was covered in bruises. Lucio’s lawyers say Mariah died from injuries she sustained in a fall down a steep staircase several days before she died.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, told Lucio the news of the stay in a phone call Monday afternoon.

“You haven’t heard the news yet?” Leach said in the audio recording provided to The Dallas Morning News.

“No, what happened?” Lucio said eagerly during the roughly 2 minute and 30 second call.

Lucio sharply inhaled and gasped when Leach told her of the decision, letting out a breathy, “Are you serious?” before getting emotional.

“You’re going to wake up Thursday morning,” the representative added.

“Oh thank you God,” she exclaimed.

Lucio’s attorneys say her capital murder conviction was based on an unreliable and coerced confession that was the result of relentless questioning and her long history of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. They say Lucio wasn’t allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession.

Her lawyers also contend that unscientific and false evidence misled jurors into believing Mariah’s injuries only could have been caused by physical abuse and not by medical complications from a severe fall.

In its three-page order, the appeals court asked that the trial court in Brownsville that handled Lucio’s case review four claims her lawyers have made: whether prosecutors used false evidence to convict her; whether previously unavailable scientific evidence would have prevented her conviction; whether she is actually innocent; and whether prosecutors suppressed evidence that would have been favorable to her defense.

More than half the members of the Texas Legislature had asked that her execution be halted. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers traveled this month to Gatesville, where the state houses female death row inmates, and prayed with Lucio.

One of those lawmakers, El Paso Democratic state Rep. Joe Moody, tweeted that he was relieved for Lucio. “A stay confirms what we’ve said all along: Melissa Lucio shouldn’t be on death row,” he wrote.

In a statement after his call, Leach said justice was served.

“Today, justice was served for Melissa Lucio – and for her daughter Mariah and the entire Lucio family - as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rightly ordered a stay of her execution scheduled for Wednesday.,” he said. “As I have stated all along, Melissa’s case is the most troubling I have ever seen. The system literally failed her at every turn.

“Going forward, Melissa should be afforded a new day in court and a fair trial, including all of the Constitutional protections designed to safeguard the fundamental liberties and freedoms of each and every Texas citizen.”

Five of the 12 jurors who sentenced Lucio and one alternate juror have questioned their decision and asked that she get a new trial.

Lucio’s cause also has the backing of faith leaders and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, and it was featured on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

Staff writer Maggie Prosser contributed to this report.