‘She didn’t kill her’

Melissa Elizabeth Lucio was previously convicted in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez

A Texas judge said a mother has been up death row since 2008 for the death of her toddler is ‘actually innocent’ with a decision on her release now in the hands of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Melissa Elizabeth Lucio has been on death row for more than a decade after being convicted of capital murder in the February 2007 death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. Lucio’s attorneys have argued that the girl’s death and injuries were caused by an accidental fall of a staircase.

In April, Senior Judge Arturo Nelson called for Lucio’s conviction and death sentence to be overturned in a 33-page court document obtained by PEOPLE at the time, arguing that evidence was suppressed during her trial.

Now, Nelson — who oversaw the trial — is sharing a new ruling, signed more than two years after the mother’s execution was ordered, stating that Lucio, 56, is “actually innocent” and “did not kill her daughter.” The October 16 document was made public this week via the Innocence Projectwho took up Lucio’s case.

Related: She was to be executed for the death of her daughter. Now prosecutors and the judge say it was an accident and not a murder

Lucio – who is supported by advocates such as Kim Kardashian – was originally scheduled for execution on April 27, 2022, but her case was dropped based on an alleged suppression of material evidence.

Following Nelson’s latest filing, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will next decide whether to overturn the mother’s conviction and sentence.

“This is the best news we can get this holiday season,” Lucio’s son and daughter-in-law, John and Michelle Lucio, said in a statement from the Innocence Project.

“We pray that our mother will be home soon,” she added.

According to Nelson’s ruling, there is “clear and convincing evidence that Mariah fell on a staircase two days before she died, exactly as plaintiff told police,” as well as evidence that “Mariah’s extensive bruising was not caused by abuse, but rather due to a complication of her injuries. fall.”

Nelson also found there was “clear and convincing evidence” that the girl’s “fatal head injuries” were caused by the fall.

Related: Texas mother on death row will receive a stay of execution and new evidence in a child’s death will be reviewed

Evidence that could have proven Mariah fell down the stairs two days before her death was suppressed, according to the ruling, including interviews with Lucio’s other children who said their sister fell down the stairs and that their mother was not abusive. (There was once a piece of evidence previously withheld, including a Child Protective Services report detailing interviews with five of Lucio’s children.)

Some accounts from Lucio’s children also said their sister was in “declining health” in the days between her fall and her death.

“This court finds that after several hours of police interrogation, during which she initially maintained that she was innocent and did not know how her daughter died, the applicant eventually told the officers that she had punched, pinched and bit Mariah and agreed that she was ‘responsible ‘. “for what happened,” the filing said. “The Court finds that the applicant has never expressly admitted that she caused the death of her daughter. The Court finds that, however, the State relied on the applicant’s admissions during the trial as a crucial piece of evidence establishing her guilt.”

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Nelson wrote last month that the court found that Lucio “has met her burden and presented clear and convincing evidence that she is factually innocent of the crime of murder,” explaining that the state medical examiner in the murder case was incorrect in concluding that ‘physical abuse was the only explanation for the young girl’s death.

Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and an attorney for Lucio, said in a statement that her client “lived every parent’s nightmare when she lost her daughter after a tragic accident.”

She told me CNN that there is “no time frame within which the (Criminal Court of Appeal) must decide a case brought before them.”

“It became a nightmare from which she could not wake up as she was sent to death row for a crime that never happened,” she added. “After sixteen years on death row, it is time for the nightmare to end. Melissa should be home now, with her children and grandchildren.”