Earlier today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to Bernardo Aban Tercero, a national of Nicaragua who was scheduled to be executed tomorrow, August 26, 2015. From Allan Turner with the Houston Chronicle:
In an affidavit submitted to the court by Tercero’s Austin attorney Walter Long, witness Sylvia Cotera said that she falsely testified that Tercero told her that he had shot his victim because the man had no money. “He never talked to me about the amount of money he robbed nor that he was angry because the man did not have very much money,” she said in the statement. “What I sad about these things in my testimony wasn’t the truth.”
According to the Chronicle, the appeals court issued the stay so that the case’s trial court could consider the merits of the new appeal.
Read the full story here.
Tercero is the eighth person to receive a stay of execution this year in Texas. At this time, six additional executions are scheduled to take place by the end of 2015.