A Texas judge has recommended overturning the conviction and sentence of a mother on death row, citing withheld evidence by prosecutors that could have influenced the outcome of her trial. The evidence, including a Child Protective Services report and interviews with Melissa Lucio’s surviving children, supports the defense’s argument that her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez, died from injuries sustained in an accidental fall down stairs, not from abuse by her mother as the state claimed.

The case will now be reviewed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. This comes after the appeals court halted Lucio’s execution two years ago, just two days before it was scheduled, sending her claims back to the trial court in Cameron County for further examination. The appeals court has the authority to overturn Lucio’s conviction, although the timeline for their decision remains uncertain.

Melissa Lucio’s case has garnered widespread support in recent years, especially leading up to her scheduled execution. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, known for championing the cases of death row inmates, along with a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers and five members of her jury, have called for mercy on Lucio’s behalf.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, at least 197 people sentenced to death in the United States since 1973 have been exonerated, with 16 of them in Texas.

The recommendation by Judge Arturo Nelson, who presided over Lucio’s capital murder trial, comes over a year after both Lucio’s attorneys and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office submitted a filing acknowledging that the state had withheld evidence favorable to Lucio. Both sides agreed that she was entitled to relief, as stated in a joint statement this month.

On Friday, Nelson signed the filing, indicating his agreement with its conclusions and finding that Lucio had “met her burden of proof, by a preponderance of the evidence, that she would not have been convicted in light of the suppressed evidence.”

In a statement provided by Lucio’s attorneys, two of her sons, Bobby Alvarez and John Lucio, along with her daughter-in-law Michelle Lucio, expressed gratitude to their mother’s legal team and District Attorney Luis Saenz for reevaluating the case and acknowledging that she did not receive a fair trial. They expressed hope that the Court of Criminal Appeals will agree with the District Attorney, the defense, and Judge Nelson, allowing their mother to come home to her family after 17 years of separation. They emphasized their love and longing for her, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to hug her once again.