TEXAS, USA — On Monday, two days before she was scheduled to be executed, Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio was granted a stay of execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The court reviewed nine claims in Lucio's habeas application and accepted four of the claims as reason to go to trial court for review. Those claims include that the state used false testimony, that scientific evidence that could have proven her innocence wasn't available at the time, that she is actually innocent and that the state suppressed evidence that her young daughter's death 15 years ago was actually an accident.
Although Lucio will not be executed on Wednesday, April 27, her legal battle is far from over. Here's a look at what's next.
What's next for Melissa Lucio?
According to Lucio's attorneys, the stay of execution put a halt on her execution indefinitely so that she and her legal team can go back to the trial court and have hearings on the "new evidence of her innocence." Lucio does, however, remain on death row at this time.
Her attorneys say that the trial court in Brownsville, Texas, will hold proceedings to hear the evidence of her innocence. The court will then make a recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which will ultimately decide whether she should receive a new trial.
Along the way, Lucio's lawyers said they will be speaking with the Cameron County district attorney, urging him to give due consideration to the new evidence of her innocence that he hasn't had an opportunity "to really evaluate and to judge for himself."
"There's still a long way to go in Melissa's case, and there's much more that stands in the way of Melissa and an exoneration," said Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at The Innocence Project, whose attorneys are also working on Lucio's case.
"But today's stay and remand to have hearings on new evidence of her innocence really opens the door to the potential of a new trial in her case and, ultimately, complete vindication," Potkin said in a statement on April 25.
Lucio's attorneys said they do not know how long the future court proceedings will take.
"We certainly want Melissa to get her hearing as quickly as possible while marshaling all of the evidence of her innocence so that she gets a fair hearing and a full hearing," said Tivon Schardl, one of Lucio's lawyers. "So, we can't say exactly how long, but we certainly don't want her to spend one day longer in prison than is absolutely necessary."
As for clemency for Lucio, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to make a clemency recommendation in her case, citing the stay of execution.
Background on the Texas mother's case
Lucio was sentenced to death after she was convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter in 2007 in Harlingen. Her case has since received national attention after supporters raised questions about the facts of the case and how it was handled at the time.
Lucio's supporters say her daughter's death was an accident after she fell down the stairs. Prior to the stay of execution, five of the jurors who convicted Lucio had asked the state parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to stop her execution, saying they were not aware of all the facts at the time and that they would not have sentenced her to death had they known then what they know now.
The Hulu documentary “The State of Texas vs. Melissa” detailed how Lucio might be innocent, and John Oliver has discussed Lucio's case twice on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight," once during an episode focused on wrongful convictions and briefly again in an episode focused on police interrogations.
Kim Kardashian also expressed her support for Lucio, signing a petition urging Abbott to stop Lucio's execution. When Lucio was granted the stay of execution, Kardashian tweeted it was the "best news ever!"
A bipartisan group of Texas House lawmakers had also urged state leaders to intervene and stop Lucio's execution, as has a group of more than 20 state senators who sent a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommending that Lucio either get her sentence commuted or that she get a reprieve.
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