In Texas, the death sentence against Melissa Lucio, the 52-year-old of Mexican origin, mother of 14 children, accused of the death of one of them, has been suspended.
The stop came on the decision of the Court of Appeal. The woman, who has always pleaded innocent, was to be executed in Gatesville prison on April 27 with a lethal injection. There have been numerous appeals from activists for his case.
According to her lawyers, Lucio ended up on death row for killing her two-year-old daughter Mariah in 2007, a crime in Cameron County. Instead, the little girl died of internal injuries sustained two days after an accidental fall.
The mother - the lawyers reconstruct - was in a vulnerable condition because she was pregnant with twins and in the throes of shock and pain for the death of the child, and was subjected to a very controversial method of interrogation, according to which, after having denied murder over a hundred times, he would have said "it is likely that I am responsible" (a phrase that could be interpreted in many ways anyway). None of the other 13 children have ever accused her, and indeed all claim her innocence.
(Unioneonline / ss)