Melissa Lucio has been on death row since 2008 for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter. However, she’s stood on her innocence all this time.
Then something unthinkable happened. Lucio was granted a stay of execution by the Court of Criminal Appeals two days before her scheduled execution in 2022.
Lucio scored another enormous legal victory this week after Senior State District Judge Arturo Nelson — the same judge who oversaw her murder trial — issued a ruling finding that the prosecutors presented false testimony and suppressed evidence proving the death of Lucio’s daughter, Mariah, was truly an accident.
On Feb. 17, 2007, paramedics responded to Lucio’s home in Brownsville after Mariah, the youngest of her 12 children, was “turning purple” and became unresponsive two days after falling down a flight of stairs, according to The Innocence Project.
When Mariah died at the hospital, Lucio was taken into questioning. It’s alleged that investigators coerced Lucio into making a false confession regarding having a hand in her daughter’s death. The new evidence, however, suggests Mariah’s injuries were consistent with an accidental fall.
“This Court finds [Lucio] has satisfied her burden and produced clear and convincing evidence that she is actually innocent of the offense of capital murder,” read the judge’s ruling. “No rational juror could have convicted [Lucio] of killing her daughter after hearing all of the evidence from her original trial alongside all of the new evidence she has presented.”
The judge’s 62-page ruling was filed in court in October but was not made available to the public until a few days ago. The judge’s recommendation for Lucio’s conviction to be overturned was sent to the appeals court, which will ultimately make the decision on whether she will be home for the holidays.
Along with Nelson’s ruling, the appeals court will also review the petitions and filings submitted by The Innocence Project, Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender for the Western District of Texas, Cornell University Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and attorneys from O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
“This is the best news we could get going into the holidays. We pray our mother will be home soon,” said John and Michelle Lucio, Lucio’s son and daughter-in-law, said in a statement via AP News.
