For nearly 15 years, Melissa Lucio has sat on Texas' death row, condemned to die for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah.
She is set to go to gurney on Wednesday. But thousands of supporters -- politicians on both the right and left, celebrities and ordinary Texans say that would be an injustice. They want the state to halt the execution.
Lucio, now 53, has a troubled history. She was allegedly sexually abused at an early age. She first married at 16 -- supporters say the marriage was abusive -- and eventually gave birth to 14 children. Over the course of her life she has been homeless and reportedly suffered mental illness and addiction issues. But she had never been suspected of child abuse.
It was while living in Harlingen in 2007 that Mariah died. After an autopsy, her death was ruled blunt force trauma.
After a grueling interrogation in which she denied being responsible more than 100 times, she confessed. She was convicted and given death.
But is she innocent?
Supporters claim she her confession was coerced and she had ineffective counsel. That she was not allowed to present mitigating evidence of her troubled life and abuse that could explain a false confession. And that the medical examiner ignored evidence Mariah died in a fall down a rickety wooden outside staircase -- something one of her siblings claimed to have witnessed. They also charge prosecutorial misconduct.
So far, those allegations have garnered a lot of opposition to Lucio's coming execution. But it hasn't swayed the courts or the state. Now there are just a couple of days left.
We support the death penalty. But in our view there are two many questions in this case. There is no justice in putting an innocent person to death. It would be better to delay Lucio's execution date until these issues are resolved.
The state can always set another another date down the road. But no power can undo the ultimate punishment.