Melissa Lucio sobs in emotional call as she learns of execution stay – follow live

Melissa Lucio’s mother has thanked all the people who supported her daughter in her plight and thanked God “for the miracle” of her stay of execution.

“Thank you for supporting Melissa and thank you to everybody and to God,” she said in a virtual press conference with members of Lucio’s legal team on Monday afternoon.

“Thank God for the miracle.”

One of Melissa Lucio’s attorney has called the decision by the appeals court to grant the mother-of-14 a stay of execution “the right thing”.

Vanessa Potkin, director of Special Litigation at the Innocence Project and one of Melissa’s attorneys, released a statement following the Court of Criminal Appeals’ announcement that it was halting Wednesday’s execution and ordering the trial court to review evidence in the case.

“The Court of Criminal Appeals did the right thing by stopping Melissa’s execution. 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,” she said in a statement.

“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.”

An emotional audio clip has captured the moment Melissa Lucio learned that her life had been saved, after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted her a stay of execution.

The 53-year-old mother-of-14 was told the news in a prison phone call with Republican state Rep Jeff Leach on Monday afternoon.

“You haven’t heard the news yet?” asks Rep Leach.

“No, what happened?” Lucio responds.

“The Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of your execution for Wednesday,” the lawmaker tells her.

Lucio is heard gasping before saying: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

Her voice breaks and she is heard laughing and sobbing with emotion.

“When did this happen?” she cries.

“We just got word about 15 minutes ago,” he tells her.

“Oh my god!” she says, laughing.

“That is wonderful! Oh my god!”

Melissa Lucio’s family are “relieved and grateful” that the 53-year-old’s life has been saved, according to one of her attorneys.

Tivon Schardl said in a statement that the family were happy with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision to grant her a stay, saying that it “honored” the memory of two-year-old Mariah in the process.

“We know that Melissa’s children — Mariah’s brothers and sisters — and Mariah’s grandparents, aunts and uncles are all relieved and grateful that Melissa’s life will not be taken by the State of Texas,” he said.

“And we believe the court honored Mariah’s memory because Melissa is innocent. Melissa is entitled to a new, fair trial. 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.”

Mr Schardl thanked “the hundreds of thousands of Texans and people around the US and the world” who had shown support for Lucio in recent months.

The order from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals means that Wednesday’s execution has now been called off.

However, it does not mean that Melissa Lucio is now free or that she has been exonerated.

Instead, her case will now be sent back to the trial court – the 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron County – to consider the new evidence put forward in the case which supports her claim of innocence.

It is not clear when the lower court will begin reviewing the case.

Lucio’s attorney told The Independent last week that if a stay was granted, the next step for her legal team would be to ask for an evidentiary hearing to present the new evidence.

There, they would ask for Lucio to be granted a new trial.

US Rep Joaquin Castro joined in the celebrations that Melissa Lucio’s looming execution has been halted.

The congressman, who represents Texas’s 20th congressional district, said there was “strong evidence” of Lucio’s innocence.

“I’m glad that Melissa Lucio’s execution has been stayed! There’s strong evidence that she did not commit the crime she was charged with,” he tweeted.

Sandra Babcock, the director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and one of Melissa Lucio’s attorneys, said Monday’s decision from the Texas appeals court showed the “Melissa’s life matters”.

“The Court’s decision paves the way for Melissa to present evidence of her innocence that should have been heard by the jury that condemned her to death fourteen years ago,” she said in a statement.

“As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence, and now locked away for these past 15 years, Melissa’s voice and experiences have never been valued.

“The Court’s decision signals its willingness to finally hear Melissa’s side of the story. If the district court hears all the evidence of Melissa’s innocence, and the gender bias that infected the police investigation and prosecution, we are confident she will return home to her family.”

Supporters of Melissa Lucio who had gathered at the state Capitol on Monday to push for her death sentence to be halted were seen celebrating news that she had been granted a stay of execution.

The group, dressed in t-shirts reading “Free Melissa Lucio”, welcomed the decision by the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas to stop her execution and order a lower court to review the new evidence in the case.

A Republican state lawmaker has spoken out about the moment Melissa Lucio learned her life was to be saved.

State Rep Jeff Leach told The Texas Tribune he told Lucio over the phone that the Texas appeals court had granted her a stay of execution.

The mother-of-14 was overcome with emotion and laughed through tears, he said.

“Are you serious?” she asked. “That is wonderful… Oh thank you, God.”

Rep Leach has become one of the most vocal supporters of Lucio in recent weeks and – in partnership with Democratic Rep Joe Moody – has led a bipartisan group of 83 state representatives in calls to stop her execution.

Last week, Rep Leach spoke out about the case saying that even “pro-life conservatives” who are in favour of the death penalty and believe capital punishment is “a God-ordained institution” must recognise the state has “royally messed it up” in Lucio’s case.

Earlier this month, seven of the lawmakers visited Lucio on death row at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville and prayed with her.

A bipartisan group of 20 members of the Texas Senate also publicly opposed Lucio’s execution.

The bipartisan group of lawmakers even includes members who are proponents of the death penalty.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has declined to grant Melissa Lucio clemency after the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas issued a stay of execution.

The parole board released a brief, one-line statement on Monday afternoon announcing its decision.

“Based on a stay of execution issued by the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas on April 25, 2022 the Board of Pardons and Paroles will not be making a clemency recommendation at this time,” the statement read.

The statement did not provide any other details about the decision.

It is not clear if the outcome would have been different had a stay not been issued.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had until 1.30pm local time on Monday to recommend whether Lucio’s death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment, if she should be granted a 120-day execution reprieve or if the execution should go ahead as planned.

The recommendations would have been sent to Republican Governor Greg Abbott who would then have the power to decide whether or not to act on them.