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The trial judge who presided over the capital murder case of death row inmate Melissa Lucio declared last month that she was innocent of her daughter’s death and recommended that her sentence and conviction be overturned, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.

Cameron County Judge Arturo Nelson concluded Oct. 16 that there was clear and convincing evidence that the death of Lucio’s 2-year-old daughter Mariah was caused by an accidental fall down a flight of stairs, and that prosecutors relied on false testimony. and flawed scientific evidence to convince a jury of his guilt.

Lucio, he discovered, “is actually innocent; she didn’t kill her daughter.

The case now goes to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which must decide whether to accept Nelson’s recommendation to vacate Lucio’s conviction and death sentence.

“This is the best news we could have before the holidays,” John and Michelle Lucio, Lucio’s son and daughter-in-law, said in a statement. “We pray that our mother will be home soon.”

Lucio was convicted of capital murder in 2008. But doubts surround the cause of Mariah’s death and the fairness of Lucio’s conviction. reaches its climax in 2022, while Lucio’s supporters — including most of the Texas legislature — argued there were too many questions about his trial to proceed with his execution.

When paramedics arrived at the family’s Brownsville home in 2007, they found Mariah “turning purple and unconscious,” with bruising all over her body.

Lucio repeatedly denied hurting his daughter. She described how Mariah had fallen down the stairs two days before her death and, although she seemed fine at first, her condition quickly deteriorated and she became congested and lethargic.

Then, after about five hours of police questioning the night Mariah died, Lucio told officers that she had slapped, pinched and bitten Mariah, although she never admitted to causing her daughter’s death. .

The state’s case rested primarily on these “confessions” at trial, while the judge excluded expert testimony that Lucio, a longtime victim of domestic and sexual abuse, sought to explain why she would make false confessions under pressure from men. authority figures.

Prosecutors also focused on a medical examiner’s testimony that Mariah’s injuries “could only have been caused by intentional physical harm.”

The Court of Criminal Appeal suspended Lucio’s execution in 2022, ordering the trial court to determine whether Lucio was actually innocent and whether the State presented false testimony at trial and withheld evidence from the defense.

In April, Nelson agreed that the the prosecution had suppressed evidence who supported Lucio’s innocence during the trial and recommended that his conviction be overturned.

In interviews with police after Mariah’s death, five of Lucio’s children denied that their mother had been physically violent and claimed that Mariah had fallen down the stairs. At least one of her children reported seeing Mariah fall.

Prosecutors did not share those interviews with the defense during the trial, which Lucio’s attorneys and Cameron County Prosecutor Luis Saenz — who was not involved in the prosecution — said in 2022 that This was a violation of his constitutional rights.

In June, the Court of Criminal Appeals asked Nelson to also make recommendations on three outstanding arguments Lucio had made for a stay, related to his actual innocence, the false testimony presented by the state and new evidence scientists.

Last month, Nelson recommended his decision on the three claims.

The judge found “clear and convincing evidence” that Mariah’s fatal head injury was caused by a fall down the stairs two days before her death, and that even if Lucio’s “confession” was true, the actions she committed she admitted would not have caused her daughter’s death. death.

“No rational juror could have convicted Plaintiff of the murder of her daughter after hearing all of the evidence from her original trial as well as all of the new evidence she presented,” he wrote.

Nelson also acknowledged that scientific evidence not presented at trial would have weakened the state’s case.

He found that there was compelling evidence that Lucio was someone very likely to make a false confession during intense interrogation, and that the injuries on Mariah’s body were likely related to her fall and not to biting or abuse as the State had alleged.

And the judge found the state used “false and misleading evidence regarding two central factual issues contested at trial.”

At trial, the state medical examiner said it was impossible that Mariah’s injuries and death were the result of an accidental fall.

But Nelson acknowledged that Mariah’s autopsy, eyewitness accounts of her fall and subsequent deterioration provided credible evidence that she died from head trauma from an accidental fall down the stairs — and not because of mistreatment.

A Texas Ranger also testified that he could determine Lucio’s guilt based on his demeanor and body language in the interrogation room. The judge concluded that the scientific consensus was that no one can determine whether a person is telling the truth based on their behavior.

According to Nelson, these key false testimonies “affected the jury’s verdict” and violated Lucio’s due process rights.

“Melissa Lucio experienced every parent’s nightmare when she lost her daughter after a tragic accident,” Vanessa Potkin, Lucio’s attorney and director of special litigation at the Innocence Project, said in a statement. “After 16 years on death row, it is time for this nightmare to end. »