Melissa Lucio was two days away from being put to death in Texas for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter when an appeals court intervened in 2022. Now, a judge says Lucio never committed the crime at all.

A Texas judge says that a mother who was previously convicted in 2008 of capital murder in the February 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter is 'actually innocent,' as Texas’s Court of Criminal Appeals can now decide on her release.

A death row inmate convicted of killing her toddler daughter is “actually innocent” of murder and should be freed from custody, the prisoner’s trial judge said in documents unearthed on Thursday.

Melissa Lucio may be set free after findings that prosecutors withheld evidence that her 2-year-old died of an accidental fall.

Attorneys for Alabama death row inmate Toforest Johnson filed a petition in Jefferson County Circuit Court Thursday seeking a new hearing on his death sentence, citing concerns raised by the local district attorney.

The court granted a temporary stay in October, halting the execution so it could consider the request by the legislators. But that stay was vacated on Friday, which means the execution can move ahead.