John —

Today, Melissa Lucio's legal team filed a petition for a stay of execution with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

This filing is the first time the court will have the opportunity to consider all of the new scientific and expert evidence showing that Melissa’s conviction was based on an unreliable, coerced “confession” and unscientific false evidence that misled the jury.

“If the jury had heard evidence about the coercive tactics used in Melissa’s interrogation and the medical evidence showing that Mariah’s cause of death was consistent with an accident, they would have found there was no murder, Melissa would have been acquitted, and she would be preparing for Easter mass with her children, not facing execution,” said Vanessa Potkin, Director of Special Litigation at the Innocence Project, and one of Melissa’s attorneys.

Melissa’s execution is still scheduled for April 27 — and that means that we have less than 12 days to stop the State of Texas from making an irreversible mistake and taking her life.

Take a moment to sign the petition calling on Texas officials to stop Melissa’s execution before it’s too late — then share it with your friends and family on social media.

In 2008, Melissa was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. Despite the lack of evidence, Melissa was sentenced to death all because of a biased and inadequate investigation and a shockingly poor defense provided to her.

Mariah died two days after accidentally falling down a flight of stairs while the family was in the process of moving. Two hours after Mariah was pronounced dead, police took Melissa into custody and aggressively questioned her for five hours. Exhausted and reeling from the loss of her daughter, Melissa was coerced into falsely taking responsibility for some of Mariah’s injuries to get police to end the interrogation. In court, her words were later misconstrued as a confession.

At the very least, Melissa deserves a new trial. To prevent Texas from executing an innocent woman, we need as many people as possible to help make our case.

Please add your name to this petition calling on Texas to stop Melissa’s execution, then encourage your friends online to join you in this fight.

Thank you for your help,

— The Innocence Project Team

P.S. Join us for a live conversation on Tuesday, April 19 at 2 p.m. ET to help stop Melissa’s execution before it's too late.