A Texas judge overseeing a death penalty case involving a mother found that evidence indicating the convicted woman's toddler daughter may have died in a tragic accident was suppressed during her trial and that she may be innocent.
Melissa Elizabeth Lucio has been on death row for 15 years, but the judge who presided over her trial, along with prosecutors and her defense attorneys, now agree that the mother of 12 should not be there.
In a 33-page court document obtained by People, Senior Judge Arturo Nelson outlined agreed-upon findings between the parties.
He declared that Lucio's conviction and death sentence should be overturned and ordered the relevant court filings sent to Texas's Court of Criminal Appeals.
The legal parties and judge claim that the Child Protective Services report documenting interviews with five of Lucio's children was not presented during the trial.
"That suppressed evidence informs a medical diagnosis consistent with the applicant's defense: that Mariah died as the result of accidental trauma," per the court file.
On February 17, 2007, paramedics arrived at the family's home in Brownsville, Texas, because Lucio's 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez, was "turning purple and unresponsive."
Lucio was convicted of capital murder in July 2008 and placed on death row a month later.
Before her scheduled execution, five jurors requested to stop Lucio's execution or grant her a new trial.
"I am now convinced that the jury got it wrong, and I know that there is too much doubt to execute Lucio," one of the jurors, Johnny Galvan Jr., wrote in an op-ed.
"If I could take back my vote, I would," he said.
