Texas Mother on Death Row 'Actually Innocent' in Daughter's Death, Judge Says: 'She Did Not Kill Her'

Mar. 15, 2025

Melissa Lucio.Photo:Courtesy Innocence Project

Courtesy Innocence Project

A Texas judge said that a mother who has been ondeath row since 2008 over the death of her toddler is “actually innocent,“with a decision on her release now in the hands of Texas’s Court of Criminal Appeals.

Now, Nelson — who oversaw the trial — is sharing in a new ruling, signed over two years after the mother’s execution was issued, that Lucio, 56, is “actually innocent” and “did not kill her daughter.” The Oct. 16 document was made public this week via theInnocence Project, which has taken on Lucio’s case.

Melissa Lucio.Courtesy Innocence Project

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

Melissa Lucio’s sons Robert Alvarez, John Lucio and Lucio’s wife Michelle address a crowd on April 27, 2022.Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald via AP

Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald via AP

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

Some of the accounts from Lucio’s children also said that their sister had “declining health” in the days between her fall and her death.

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Nelson wrote last month that the court found Lucio “has satisfied her burden and produced clear and convincing evidence that she is actually innocent of the offense of capital murder,” explaining that the state’s medical examiner at the murder trial was incorrect in concluding that “physical abuse was the only explanation” for the young girl’s death.

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

She toldCNNthat there is “no time frame within which the [Criminal Court of Appeals] has to decide a case that is submitted to them.”

“It became a nightmare from which she couldn’t wake up 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 right now with her children and grandchildren.”

source: people.com