USA - Texas. The Court of Criminal Appeals ordered additional review in the case of Rigoberto Avila

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered additional review in the case of Rigoberto Avila, 47, Hispanic. Texas' highest criminal court has returned the case of Avila to his El Paso trial court for additional review of whether new scientific evidence could show he wasn't responsible for the fatal beating of his girlfriend's son in February 2000. The Court said attorneys for Avila have raised legally sufficient questions about prosecution evidence that pointed to Avila as fatally stomping 19-month-old Nicolas Macias. Avila's attorneys have presented affidavits from experts in biomechanics and a report from a physicist that shows the child's fatal injury wasn't necessarily caused by an adult. Attorneys have contended he could have been hurt by an older sibling. Avila was watching the boy and a 4-year-old brother while his girlfriend was at school. He denied hurting the victim.