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In this Feb. 5, 2014 photo, Pope Francis meets Argentine Lidia Guerrero in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The pope, an Argentine native, told Guerrero he knew all about her son, who has been on death row in Texas for 19 years. "Ive prayed so much for that young man from Cordoba," she says Francis told her, referring to the hometown of Victor Hugo Saldano. The short meeting left Guerrero with more hope than she has felt in years about the future of her son, who she says is guilty of murder but has been driven to insanity on death row in Texas. (L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP)![Argentina_Pope_Death__Vros__2_]()
In this undated photo, courtesy of Lidia Guerrero, her son Victor Saldano smiles for the camera while on death row for murder at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, near Houston, Texas. After several appeals, in 2002 the Supreme Court sent the case back to Texas to review after then Texas Attorney General John Cornyn said the state erred by including ethnicity in the case. In 2004, Saldano was retried and again sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of computer salesman Paul Kin near Dallas. (Lidia Guerrero via AP Photo)![Argentina_Pope_Death__Vros__1_]()
In this Aug. 22, 2015 photo, Lidia Guerrero holds up a picture of her son Victor Saldano inside her home in Cordoba, Argentina. I have no certainty that Pope Francis will ask for clemency for my son, but I do have hope, said Guerrero, 67. Saldano has been on death row for 19 years in Texas for the 1995 murder of computer salesman Paul Kin near Dallas. (AP Photo/ Nico Aguilera)![Argentina_Pope_Death__Vros__4_]()
In this Aug. 22, 2015 photo, Lidia Guerrero crosses her hands over photographs of her son Victor Saldano, a convicted murderer who has been on death row in Texas for 19 years, inside her home in Cordoba, Argentina. Death penalty opponents are hoping that Pope Francis pressures U.S. lawmakers to abolish the practice when he visits the United States next month, and Guerrero is praying that the pope intervenes on behalf of her son. (AP Photo/Nico Aguilera)![Argentina_Pope_Death__Vros__5_]()
In this undated photo courtesy of Lidia Guerrero, she and her daughter Ada Saldano pose with her son Victor while he's on death row at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, near Houston, Texas. There's no doubt that Saldano pulled the trigger that killed Paul King in Dallas in 1995, but there has been a legal row over whether he should have received the death penalty. (Lidia Guerrero via AP)![APTOPIX_Argentina_Pop_Vros]()
In this Aug, 22, 2015 photo, Lidia Guerrero, mother of death row inmate Victor Saldano, poses for a portrait at her home in Cordoba, Argentina. Guerrero's son has been on death row in Texas for 19 years for killing a computer salesman outside Dallas. Guerrero says her son is guilty of murder but has been driven to insanity on death row. Thes execution date has not been scheduled. (AP Photo/ Nico Aguilera)![Argentina_Pope_Death__Vros]()
In this undated photo courtesy of Lidia Guerrero, she poses for a portrait with her daughters Ada Saldano, behind her, Sandra Saldano, left, and son Victor Saldano, top, in Cordoba, Argentina. Guerrero says her son left home at 18, first going to Brazil, where his father was living, and then to several countries in South America. Saldano spent the next several years traveling and working odd jobs as he moved across Central America and Mexico. From the time he was a boy, he always talked about seeing the world, said Guerrero. In the early 1990s, Saldano entered the U.S. illegally via the Mexico-Texas border. After spending some time in New York, he returned to Dallas where he was convicted of murder and put on death row. (Lidia Guerrero via AP)Argentine mom hopes pope will help get son off death row
When Lidia Guerrero met with Pope Francis in Rome last year, she felt more hope than she had in years.
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- Argentine mom hopes pope will help get son off death row
