Mum-of-14 convicted of killing two-year-old daughter saved from death penalty in 11th-hour appeal

Convicted child killer Melissa Lucio was days from being put to death when her lawyers managed to buy her some time in a sensational 11th-hour deal.

A death-row inmate landed an 11th-hour stay of execution from a state appellate court, her lawyers said.

Texas woman Melissa Lucio avoided being put to death on April 27 after the last-minute ruling.

The accused child killer’s case has garnered national attention in the US and bipartisan support from Texas politicians for another look, New York Post reported.

A ruling by a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday (local time) kicked her conviction back for further review, according to her lawyers at the Innocence Project.

The 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron Country, where the mother of 14 was convicted in the 2007 death of her two-year-old daughter Mariah, will now consider reported new evidence in the case, her lawyers said.

Melissa Lucio was given an 11th-hour stay of execution from a state appellate court. Picture: Judicial District Court of Cameron Country

“I thank God for my life. I have always trusted in Him,” Lucio said in a statement.

“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.”

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was also supposed to separately meet to consider a clemency request for Lucio.

But given the appeals court ruling, the Board of Pardons and Paroles decided not to vote on her clemency request at the moment, officials said.

Lucio’s lawyers, at her new court hearing, are expected to present what they say is evidence that her confession was coerced.

Mariah’s official cause of death was blunt force trauma.

Melissa Lucio (centre) bowing her head in prayer during a meeting with a bipartisan group of Texas politicians at Gatesville Correctional Facility in Texas. Picture: State Representative Jeff Leach/AFP

Lucio claims the girl fell down the stairs and died as a result of complications from those injuries over two days in which she did not seek medical care for her daughter.

Lucio was questioned by police after investigators discovered a bite mark along with scratches and bruises on the girl’s body.

During a police interrogation, Lucio admitted to biting and spanking Mariah.

Cameron County prosecutors used that statement to secure a conviction even though the mum insisted the death was an accident.

“We can sit here and debate whether Ms Lucio should have taken [Mariah] to the hospital sooner when she started to decline in health, but she was not abused,” one of Lucio’s lawyers, Vanessa Potkin, told The Post last week.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission