© Pepe OlivaresMaría del Carmen García is hugged by her daughter, Verónica, after hearing that she will not have to go back to prison.
María del Carmen García already had her suitcase packed, ready to enter the Fontcalent prison in Alicante on Thursday for killing her daughter's rapist. However, at the last minute, the court accepted the appeal filed by her attorney, Joaquín Galant, which called for the suspension of her sentence while the government considers her request for a pardon.
"Thank you all for your support," said García, visibly emotional after learning that, at least for now, she won't have to return to jail to serve the remaining four-and-a-half years of her murder sentence. "They have to pardon me because I'm not a killer," she told reporters.
Her daughter, Verónica, was 13 when she was raped by a neighbor in 1998. The offender was sentenced to nine years in prison. In 2005, while on parole, the rapist returned to their hometown, Benejúzar, and ran into García. "How's your daughter?" he asked her.
María del Carmen's response was blunt. She bought a bottle of gasoline, walked into a bar, doused the convicted rapist and set him on fire. The man died a week later from the burns he suffered.
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