A Texas mother who spent the last 22 years in prison was exonerated Monday in the 2003 death of a 10-month-old boy who was burned from scalding bathwater while in her care.<\/p>\n
Travis County District Court Judge P. David Wahlberg exonerated Carmen Mejia after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned her convictions for felony murder, injury to a child and injury to a child by omission.<\/p>\n
At her exoneration hearing, Mejia cried as she thanked God.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout these 20 years, I kept my faith and my hope that God was going to do justice,\u201d she said in court via a translator. \u201cI want to thank everybody who\u2019s with me in this moment and to my judge.\u201d<\/p>\n
In its Jan. 22 decision, the court ruled that \u201cnewly discovered evidence establishes that she is actually innocent of all three counts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that I can say at this point that will bring back those 23 years,\u201d Judge Wahlberg told Mejia. \u201cSigning this piece of paper won\u2019t bring it back. There is no amount of money that will ever compensate you for losing the best years of your life. I wish I had that power. What I can do is say to you that there is a reason to hope and believe that your future will be better every day from now on, and I pray that it is so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mejia was not released at the conclusion of the exoneration hearing because of an immigration hold stemming from her conviction. The Innocence Project said Mejia \u2014 who is from Honduras and came to the U.S. in 1995 \u2014 was granted temporary protected status before her arrest and obtained lawful work authorization.<\/p>\n
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has 48 hours to decide whether to detain Mejia and transfer her to a detention center or release her, according to the Innocence Project. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Mejia was at home on July 28, 2003, with her four children and a 10-month-old boy she was babysitting, the Innocence Project said in a news release<\/a>. While she nursed her youngest child, her eldest daughter started a bath for the 10-month-old, the release states. The Innocence Project said the water heater in Mejia’s rented home lacked safety features, and the water in the tub reached 147.8 degrees.<\/p>\n The baby suffered third-degree burns within seconds of being exposed to the water, according to the news release. He died at the hospital.<\/p>\n Mejia was convicted in 2005 and was sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n In post-conviction hearings held in 2024, Mejia’s daughter testified that the baby was in the bathtub when she turned the faucet on. She said her mother was not in the bathroom at the time, the Travis County District Attorney\u2019s Office said in a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n An expert also testified that homes built before the 1980s, like Mejia’s rental home, did not have the recommended plumbing safety features designed to prevent scald injuries, the Innocence Project said. Another expert testified that the temperature in the tub could have caused burn injuries within a matter of seconds.<\/p>\n Vanessa Potkin, Mejia’s Innocence Project attorney, said that \u201cwhile we are overjoyed that the courts finally recognize that Ms. Mejia is innocent, this grave injustice should have never happened in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Mejia is a woman of immeasurable strength, who has relied on her deep faith to withstand a traumatic period of her life that most people wouldn\u2019t be able to survive,\u201d Potkin said in a statement. \u201cHer case is far from isolated.\u201d<\/p>\n