Melissa Elizabeth Lucio was previously convicted in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez.

A judge in Texas said that a mother who was on sentenced to death in 2008 over her child’s death is ‘actually innocent’ with a decision on her release now in the hands of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Melissa Elizabeth Lucio has been on death row for more than a decade after she was convicted of murder in the February 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. Lucio’s lawyers argued that the girl’s death and injuries were caused by an accidental fall down the stairs.

In April, Chief Judge Arturo Nelson asked for Lucio’s conviction and death sentence to be overturned in a 33-page court document obtained by PEOPLE at the time, arguing that evidence was suppressed at her trial.

Now Nelson — who oversaw the trial — is sharing a new ruling, signed more than two years after the mother’s execution, that Lucio, 56, is “in fact innocent” and “did not kill her daughter” . The October 16 document was made public this week via The Innocence Projectwho took over Lucio’s case.

Related: She was to be executed in her daughter’s death. Now, prosecutors and the judge say it was an accident, not a murder

Lucio — who was supported by lawyers such as Kim Kardashian — was originally scheduled for execution on April 27, 2022, but her case was halted based on an alleged suppression of physical evidence.

Following Nelson’s latest filing, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will next decide whether the mother’s conviction and sentence will be overturned.

“This is the best news we could get over the holidays,” Lucio’s son and daughter-in-law, John and Michelle Lucio, said in a statement provided by the Innocence Project.

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

According to Nelson’s decision, there is “clear and convincing evidence that Mariah fell down some stairs two days before she died, as the complainant told police,” as well as evidence that “Mariah’s extensive bruising was not caused by abuse , but rather a complication of it. I fall.”

Nelson also found there was “clear and convincing evidence” that the girl’s “fatal head injury” was caused by the fall.

Related: Texas mother on death row granted stay of execution, new evidence to be reviewed in child’s death

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

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

“This court finds that, after several hours of police questioning in which she initially insisted that she was innocent and did not know how her daughter died, plaintiff ultimately told the officers that she had slapped, pinched, and bit- o Mariah and agreed that she was “responsible”. ‘ for what happened”, the file states. “The court notes that the applicant never expressly admitted that she caused her daughter’s death. The Court finds that the applicant’s admissions were nevertheless relied upon by the State at trial as critical evidence establishing her guilt.”

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Nelson wrote last month that the court found that Lucio “met her burden and produced clear and convincing evidence that she is in fact innocent of the crime 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 Lucio’s attorney, said in a statement that her client “lived every parent’s nightmare when she lost her daughter to a tragic accident.”

She said CNN that there is “no time limit within which (the Court of Criminal Appeal) must rule on a case brought before them”.

“It became a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from 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.”