The judge who presided over the murder trial Melissa Lucio He said he believes Lucio is “truly innocent” of the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Maria, in 2007.
Lucio has been on death row in Texas since 2008. In 2022, the State Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution If. The Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the original trial court to consider whether Lucio was actually innocent and whether state prosecutors had presented false testimony and concealed evidence from the defense.
In April 2024, Judge Arturo C. Nelson, who presided over the original trial, agreed that the former district attorney illegally withheld favorable evidence that would have helped prove that Maria did not die from abuse. Rather, it was an accidental fall, as claimed by the prosecution.
CBS News previously reported that new evidence showed Maria's injuries were consistent with a brain injury caused by an accidental fall down the stairs of the family home two days earlier. Lucio And some of her children reported the fall to police authorities and Child Protective Services. Nelson ruled that this violated Lucio's constitutional rights and recommended the appeals court overturn Lucio's conviction and death sentence.
Ilana Panich-Linsman/Redux
Court documents released yesterday Show that October, Nelson ruled that there was clear and convincing evidence that Maria died from an accidental fall, and said that Lucio “is actually innocent; he did not kill his daughter.”
“No rational jury could convict (Lucio) of murdering his daughter after hearing all the evidence from his original trial as well as all the new evidence he presented,” Nelson wrote.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, who was not in office at the time of Lucio's original trial, also agreed that the previous prosecution team suppressed evidence that could have supported Lucio's innocence, according to a News release from the Innocence Project,
The case is now before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which will decide whether to accept Nelson's recommendation.
In a statement shared by The Innocence Project, Ms. Lucio's son and daughter-in-law, John and Michelle Lucio, said, “This is the best news going into the holidays.” “We pray that our mother will come home soon,” he said, accompanied by Ms. Lucio’s son, Bobby Alvarez.