THANK GOODNESS! Melissa Lucio Granted Stay of Execution by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

[elleng]

Melissa Lucio will no longer face execution on April 27.

Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution for Melissa Lucio and ordered the 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron Country to consider new evidence of her innocence in the death of her daughter, Mariah.

Statements from Ms. Lucio and her attorneys are below.

https://innocenceproject.org/melissa-lucio-granted-stay-execution-texas-court-criminal-appeals/?

((I've actually lost sleep over this.))

[LeftInTX]

1. Wow!!!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. This is great news

This lady should not be executed

[smirkymonkey]

3. K&R

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. For this thread

Link to tweet

[elleng]

5. Thank you

[Nevilledog]

6. So glad to hear this.

[blogslug]

7. That is good news

[mvd]

8. Great news!

There is at least SOME sense in Texas.

[liberalla]

9. K&R

[ancianita]

10. Wow, today's shaping up to be a heckuva good news day. The Innocence Project

has a good record of getting convictions thrown out. Let's hope they succeed this time.

[Ohio Joe]

11. Wow... Good news out of Texas...

I'd hoped this would happen but really did not expect it from Texas.

[dalton99a]

12. Kick

[DFW]

13. Indirectly, I think Beto is partially responsible

Abbott and his supporters in the State Government read the polls, too, and figured, probably correctly, that executing Melissa Lucio at this moment would be something the Texas voters might have held against them in the election this fall. It's nothing Beto did, but his catching up to Abbott in the one poll must have sounded an alarm in some right wing circles. Besides, it costs them noting to spare the life of someone who will probably be exonerated if the state doesn't kill her first.

[elleng]

20. EXCELLENT!

THANKS!

[Collimator]

14. It IS good news.

And my peace of mind* has also been shaken by worry over Ms. Lucio's fate. Honestly, though, I think that leaving this matter to the last 48 hours or so before her scheduled execution pretty much constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. But then again, I'm not a Texas governor, so I'm not a self-satisfied sadist with delusions of Christian Virtue.









*(What little there is to be found when I'm not thinking about Ukraine.)

[ripcord]

15. I didn't want an execution on my birthday anyways

Should have never got to this point.

[samsingh]

16. this is good news

[cab67]

17. You're not the only one.

I lived in Texas for a while, but I've come to the uncomfortable conclusion that many Texans these days - maybe even a majority - are cruel bullies who hurt people because it gives them pleasure.

Not all Texans by any stretch - but enough to put a genuine psychopath in the Governor's Mansion, and enough to keep a capricious and unjust death penalty system in operation.

[malaise]

18. Great news

Rec

[Jilly_in_VA]

19. Well

Not to throw cold water on it or anything, but it's a STAY, not a clemency or even a new trial, just an order for consideration of new evidence. Texas prosecutors being what they are, I hold kind of faint hope. I guess that makes me an extreme cynic, but at least she isn't being executed in the near future. You know Gov. Hot Wheels will never grant clemency, or even reduce her sentence to life, being the vindictive awhole he is.

My personal belief is that the death penalty is immoral except in cases so extreme as to be equated with someone like Putin. Even then I would prefer nature to take its course.

[elleng]

21. An order for consideration of new evidence is pretty darn close to a 'hew trial.'

*At trial, prosecutors argued Lucio was an abusive mother who likely caused the injuries that brought about her daughter’s death. But Lucio and her attorneys said Mariah’s injuries stemmed not from abuse but from a fall down a staircase outside the family’s second-floor apartment two days prior to her death.

Of the nine claims Lucio raised in her habeas application, the appellate court ordered the trial court to consider four of them, including her assertions she is innocent and new scientific evidence precludes her conviction. Lucio also argued the state relied on false testimony and suppressed evidence favorable to her defense. . .

According to Lucio’s attorneys, the trial court in Brownsville will hold proceedings to hear the evidence of Lucio’s innocence. The court would then make a recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which will ultimately decide whether Lucio should receive a new trial, Tivon Schardl, one of Lucio’s attorneys, said at a virtual news conference Monday.

“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, the 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,” Potkin told reporters, “and ultimately, complete vindication.”'>>>

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/us/melissa-lucio-stay-of-execution/index.html

[Jilly_in_VA]

24. Yes and no

It's Texas, and Texas prosecutors are pretty well-known for not budging. So you will forgive me if I'm a little bit skeptical that she ends up with anything less than life.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

22. MORE GOOD/GREAT NEW

Link to tweet

[Raine]

23. I don't believe there was any crime committed here. nt