Texas suspends execution of Latina Melissa Lucio

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday granted a stay of execution to Melissa Lucio, which will halt the proceedings scheduled for Wednesday, her attorneys announced in a statement.

The Latina woman was found guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Elizabeth Alvarez, in 2007. At the time, the Cameron County jury found that she had "beaten and tortured" her daughter to death.

However, after the Mexican-American spent 14 years in prison, her lawyers claim that a new review of the evidentiary material in the case shows that Lucio is innocent and she was coerced into giving a confession under pressure.

Under this argument, the Court of Appeals ordered the Lower House of the Texas Congress to "examine the possible innocence" of Melissa Lucio in the face of the considerable doubts raised by her conviction.

The document also states that almost half of the jurors who sentenced Lucio to death asked for a stay of execution and a new trial.

Melissa Elizabeth Lucio is the mother of 12 children, who have repeatedly defended their mother's innocence. For them, the death of their sister Mariah was accidental because she never abused any of them despite having a past marked by abuse, violence, and drugs, they claim.

"I knew the accusations made against me were not true. My children were always my world, and while my life choices were not good, I would never hurt any of my children in that way," Lucio added in a letter to Texas lawmakers.

Lucio's case has been supported by several celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, who also promotes reform of the U.S. judicial system, and Amanda Knox, who was convicted of a murder in Italy and later exonerated.

The Mexican ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma, posted on his Twitter account that he sent a letter to the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to request that he grant executive clemency to Melissa Lucio.

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Estoy enviando una carta al Gobernador @GregAbbott_TX para que conceda clemencia ejecutiva a Melissa Elizabeth Lucio, condenada a pena de muerte en #Texas.

México ha manifestado históricamente un compromiso invariable en su oposición a la pena de muerte.

— Esteban Moctezuma Barragán (@emoctezumab) April 22, 2022

Several activist groups have also protested in different U.S. cities to request the same recourse from the Texas governor and save the life of the woman who could become the first Latin American woman to be executed by that state.