Melissa Lucio was two days away from being put to death in Texas for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter when an appeals court intervened in 2022. Now, a judge says Lucio never committed the crime at all.

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

In a court filing, the judge said the conviction of Melissa Lucio, whose scheduled execution in 2022 was halted, should be overturned. The state’s highest criminal court will now decide.

A death row inmate convicted of killing her toddler daughter is “actually innocent” of murder and should be freed from custody, the prisoner’s trial judge said in documents unearthed on Thursday.

Melissa Lucio may be set free after findings that prosecutors withheld evidence that her 2-year-old died of an accidental fall.

Melissa Lucio, a mother of 14 living in Brownsville, Texas, was arrested and charged in 2007 for the murder of her two-year-old daughter Mariah Alvarez who had turned purple and unresponsive at

Judge Arturo Nelson said there was clear and convincing evidence that the death of Lucio’s 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, was caused by a fall.

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,

Efforts to free Melissa Lucio, a Texas woman whose execution was delayed in 2022 amid growing doubts she fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter, were significantly bolstered after a judge concluded that she is “actually innocent” of capital murder.