A Texas death row inmate was found “actually innocent” by a judge who recommended her capital murder conviction be overturned because new evidence claimed her daughter died from an accidental fall.

Melissa Lucio, a mother of 14 living in Brownsville, Texas, was arrested and charged in 2007 with the murder of her two-year-old daughter Mariah Alvarez, who had turned purple and was unresponsive at home.

Since her 2008 conviction for capital murder, Lucio — with the help of the majority Texas Legislature and reality TV superstar Kim Kardashian – maintained her innocence by claiming her daughter fell down a flight of stairs and said prosecutors relied on false testimony and tainted evidence.

Cameron County District 138 Court Judge Arturo Nelson found Lucio to be “innocent in fact” and did not kill his daughter,” according to court documents. obtained by KPRC.

Additional evidence, which was withheld by prosecutors during Lucio’s trial, was presented and used to convince Nelson of her innocence.

“In light of the new evidence, there is such clear and convincing evidence of innocence that no rational juror would have convicted (Lucio).” Nelson wrote.

Prosecutors argued at the time that little Mariah had numerous signs of trauma and bruises covering her body when paramedics tried unsuccessfully to revive the toddler on Feb. 17, 2007, court records viewed by The Post showed.

Body injuries included scratches and a bite mark.

Coroner Dr. Norma Jean Farley testified that Mariah died of blunt force trauma because the toddler’s injuries “could only have been caused by intentional physical abuse within 24 hours of her death.”

Farley’s testimony ruled out any possibility that the toddler’s injuries were the result of an accidental fall.

Texas Ranger Victor Escalon, who questioned Lucio the night of her daughter’s death, determined the mother’s guilt based on her behavior.

“Escalon testified that (Lucio) was not making eye contact with the investigator and had his head down, and consequently: right there and then, he knew he had done something. And he was ashamed of what he did and it was hard for him to admit what happened.”

During her cross-examination, Lucio admitted that her daughter’s “condition” had deteriorated in the two days between her fall and her death, including becoming severely congested and lethargic, with vomiting and gagging as two visible symptoms.

Lucio and her husband, Robert Alvarez, never sought medical care for their daughter but repeatedly denied causing his death.

After being shown a photo of her dead daughter, Lucio told investigators that she slapped, pinched and bit Mariah and accepted responsibility for her death, but never admitted to causing -o, court documents revealed.

Child Protective Services took custody of eight of Lucio’s children, with at least one telling police he witnessed Mariah’s fall.

Nelson found that the jury reached a verdict based on Farley’s false testimony and Escalon’s incorrect testimony.

Lucio’s case caught Kardashian’s attention in 2022, when ten of her children wrote a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking them to drop their mother’s death sentence.

“We ask that you spare the life of our mother, Melissa Lucio. We ask for closure. We ask for peace,” the letter says.

Kardashian called the letter “heartbreaking” and said there are “many unresolved questions surrounding this case and the evidence that was used.”

“This is one of the many reasons I am against the death penalty — and why I pray that her children’s wish will be granted and their mother’s life spared,” she wrote.

The case moves to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which will decide whether to accept Nelson’s recommendation to overturn Lucio’s murder conviction and death sentence.

If Lucio remains on death row, she would be Texas’ first Latina on death row, appropriately Texas Tribune.

She was held at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas.