Texas Woman Exonerated After 22 Years Won't Be Deported

A Texas woman whose murder conviction was tossed after more than two decades in prison will not be forced out of the country, the New York Times reports. Federal officials say 54-year-old Carmen Mejia, declared innocent Monday in the 2003 scalding death of a 10-month-old in her care, can remain in the US under Temporary Protected Status, which she was granted when she came to the US from Honduras in 1995, fleeing abuse. She lost her legal immigration status while serving a life sentence in Texas, triggering an immigration hold even after the state's highest criminal court overturned her conviction in January. A Travis County judge on Monday formally dismissed the charges and urged federal authorities not to "compound the tragedy" with deportation. The Department of Homeland Security later said the immigration hold would be lifted and Mejia would be allowed to remain in the country until her Temporary Protected Status expires.

New expert reviews of the evidence—including burn specialists and recanting state witnesses—concluded the child's fatal injuries were accidental, not intentional, aligning with long-missing statements from Mejia's children and fresh testimony from a daughter who said she, not her mother, turned on the hot water while she was attempting to give the boy a bath. The family's rented home, built prior to the 1980s, did not have plumbing safety features to prevent scalding, and the water temperature reached 147.8 degrees, with the baby suffering third-degree burns within seconds, NBC News reports. Mejia's lawyers say her release will allow her to reunite with her four children, of whom she lost custody while in prison. All of them were under 8 at the time of her conviction and were adopted by other families, KVUE reports.