Only Latina on Texas death row seeks clemency as execution looms, NBC News reports

A 53-year-old woman, who claims she was wrongly convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter in 2007, has filed a clemency petition ahead of her planned execution in April, NBC News reports.

Melissa Lucio is the only Latina on Texas’ death row. She is set to die by lethal injection on April 27. Her lawyers are hoping to spare her life 14 years after she was sentenced to death in a capital murder case involving the youngest of her dozen children at the time.

Lucio’s supporters claim she was wrongly convicted and that police coerced a confession.

Lawyers said presenting evidence indicates that she was wrongfully convicted and that four jurors at her trial now question their guilty finding.

According to the reports, the clemency filing is not asking for a full pardon, but rather a commutation of her death sentence to a lesser penalty, or at the least, a 120-day reprieve from execution as she seeks a new trial.

Read more here.