WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A Texas high court on Tuesday agreed to stay the execution of Nicaraguan citizen Bernardo Tercero, who was scheduled to be executed tomorrow on a capital murder conviction nearly a decade ago.
The Texas Court of Appeals issued its reprieve after Tercero’s defense issued an appeal of his death sentence on Monday arguing that the Nicaraguan was denied due process after the state presented false testimony during his trial, court documents show.
Last week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urged Texas to stay Tercero’s execution after the Commission found that the state had failed to inform him of his right to consular notification and assistance, which deprived him of the minimum standards of a criminal process for a fair trial required under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.
Tercero was convicted of killing a Houston school teacher during a robbery at a dry cleaners shop in 1997.
