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

A Texas judge said a mother who was under on death row since 2008 following the death of her child is “in reality innocent”, with the decision regarding his 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 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. Lucio’s lawyers argued that the girl’s death and injuries were caused by an accidental fall down a flight of stairs.

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

Today, Nelson – who oversaw the trial – shares a new ruling, signed more than two years after the mother’s execution, that Lucio, 56, is “truly innocent” and “did not kill his girl”. The October 16 document was made public this week via the Innocence Projectwho took on Lucio’s case.

Related: She was to be executed following the death of her daughter. Prosecutors and judge now say it was an accident, not murder

Lucio — who has been supported by advocates such as Kim Kardashian – was originally scheduled to be executed on April 27, 2022, but his case was halted due to alleged suppression of physical evidence.

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

“This is the best news we could have before the holidays,” Lucio’s son and daughter-in-law, John and Michelle Lucio, said in a statement provided by the Innocence Project.

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

According to Nelson’s ruling, there is “clear and convincing evidence that Mariah fell down stairs two days before she died, just as Plaintiff told police,” as well as evidence that “the numerous bruises on Mariah’s injuries were not caused by abuse but rather by a complication of her fall.”

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

Related: Texas mother sentenced to death receives stay of execution, new evidence in her child’s death to be examined

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

Some accounts from Lucio’s children also indicated that their sister had “failing health” between her fall and her death.

“This Court finds that after several hours of police questioning during which she initially insisted that she was innocent and that she did not know how her daughter had died, the applicant finally told the police officers that she had slapped, pinched and bitten Mariah and admitted that she was ‘responsible’ “for what happened”, the file indicates. “The Court finds that the applicant never expressly confessed to having. caused the death of his girl. The Court considers that the applicant’s confession was, however, invoked by the State at the trial as essential evidence establishing her guilt.”

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Nelson wrote last month that the court found that Lucio “met her burden and produced clear and convincing evidence demonstrating that she was actually innocent of the crime of capital murder,” explaining that the medical examiner The State’s attorney at the murder trial was wrong to conclude that “physical ill-treatment was the only explanation” for the girl’s death.

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

She said CNN that there is “no time limit within which the (Court of Criminal Appeal) must rule on a matter submitted to it.”

“It became a nightmare that she couldn’t wake up from when she was sent to death row for a crime that never happened,” she added. “After 16 years on death row, it’s time for the nightmare to end. Melissa should be home now with her children and grandchildren.”