UPDATE 5:18 P.M.
Read the latest update here:
‘Can’t believe it’: Execution stayed, Melissa Lucio’s family rejoices as defense looks ahead
UPDATE 3:44 p.m.
GATESVILLE — Melissa Lucio was granted a stay of execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday, just two days before she was scheduled to be put to death on a capital murder conviction.
Lucio, of Harlingen, had been on death row since 2008 after she was found guilty of capital murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah.
The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office has long stood by its evidence but members of the Lucio family believe Mariah died by falling down the stairs at their Harlingen home, and her appellate attorneys have been working to gather more evidence to get a stay.
Her son, John Lucio, learned the news Monday while he was at a Holiday Inn in Gatesville, where he was visiting his mother just two days prior to her execution.
“I can’t even believe it. My heart is not even … I can’t even cope with it right now,” he said when asked for his reaction upon hearing the news. “It’s unbelievable — my mother is off death row; she’s not on death row anymore. The execution date no longer exists.”
John Lucio, who was getting quarters for his mother at the Holiday Inn, said he received a call from his mother’s lead attorney, Tivon Schardl, who informed him of the stay. Cheers then erupted.
“(I was) in the middle of the Holiday Inn in the lobby, and (everybody) just started yelling, everybody coming out of the rooms (asking) what the heck is going on. We’re celebrating — that’s what’s going on,” he said, adding he’s “bringing her quarters so she can get her snack on.”
The appellate court has also ordered the 138th state District Court of Cameron Country to consider new evidence.
In a statement Monday, Lucio said, “I thank God for my life. I have always trusted in Him. I am grateful the Court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence. 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.”
Schardl also issued a statement acknowledging Lucio’s family’s relief, and expressed the belief that the court “honored Mariah’s memory because Melissa is innocent.”
“Melissa is entitled to a new, fair trial,” Schardl said in the statement. “The people of Texas are entitled to a new, fair trial. Texans should be grateful and proud that the Court of Criminal Appeals has given Melissa’s legal team the opportunity to present the new evidence of Melissa’s innocence to the Cameron County district court.”
The attorney went on to offer gratitude to those who’ve offered their support, a wide-ranging list of individuals, lawmakers, advocacy organizations and faith-based institutions.
Innocence Project special litigation director Vanessa Potkin, who was also one of Lucio’s attorneys, said the appellate court “did the right thing.”
“Medical evidence shows that Mariah’s death was consistent with an accident. But for the State’s use of false testimony, no juror would have voted to convict Melissa of capital murder because no murder occurred,” Potkin said. “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. 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.”
This is a developing story.
