- NEW: Yanira Maldonado and her husband are en route to their Phoenix-area home Friday
- Maldonado's lawyer says security camera footage was crucial evidence
- Maldonado was accused of smuggling drugs on a bus
- A judge had until Friday to decide whether to press formal charges
Nogales, Mexico (CNN) -- A Mexican court released an American woman detained over allegations she tried to smuggle 12 pounds of marijuana under a bus seat.
Yanira Maldonado, an Arizona resident and mother of seven, had denied the charges. She was released Thursday night after the court determined that the prosecutors did not provide evidence.
Her husband, Gary Maldonado, tearfully embraced his wife after she was released. They headed back to their hometown of Goodyear, Arizona, early Friday morning.
The case has sparked widespread media coverage and attention from U.S. lawmakers as family members pushed for her freedom.
Security footage revealed
Family: Mom framed in Mexico pot bust 
Daughter cries over mom held in Mexico 
U.S. mother in Mexican jail speaks 
Husband fights to free jailed wife Security camera footage revealed in court Thursday shows Maldonado and her husband boarding a bus in Mexico last week. They are carrying a purse, two blankets and two bottles of water.
It's an everyday scene that plays out at bus stations around the world. But in this case, defense attorney Francisco Benitez argued that the images are a crucial piece of evidence.
Why? Because nothing they're carrying, he said, could hold the amount of marijuana that Maldonado was accused of smuggling.
Video footage suggests that someone else brought the marijuana aboard the bus, the lawyer said.
Packages of marijuana allegedly recovered from under Maldonado's seat would not have fit in her purse, Benitez said.
Big relief
Her attorneys also presented documents that show that she and her husband have no criminal records in the United States, Benitez said.
Word that the surveillance video had been shown in court was a big relief, her husband said.
"That was the key that would help us prove her innocence," he said.
"It showed right on the film clear as day there's no way you could carry 12 pounds or 5.7 kilos with one arm," he said.
The Mexican military officials who arrested Maldonado haven't made their case yet in court. The soldiers were scheduled to appear Wednesday but didn't show.
Official: She was framed
Mexican authorities arrested Maldonado, a U.S. citizen, on May 22 as she and her husband were on their way back to Arizona.
Gary Maldonado said he believes Mexican soldiers at the checkpoint wanted a bribe. A Mexican state official also told CNN it appears that Maldonado was framed.
A regional office of Mexico's defense ministry said troops conducting a routine investigation stopped the bus Maldonado was riding in and found 12.5 pounds (5.7 kilograms) of a substance that appeared to be marijuana under her seat.
Troops turned the case over to the Mexican attorney general's office, the defense ministry said. Maldonado was held in a women's prison in Nogales.
Tearful pleas
In an interview Wednesday with CNN, Maldonado, a Mormon, said she has been turning to Scripture to survive the ordeal.
"Reading the Scriptures, reading the Book of Mormon, praying, fasting," Maldonado said. "And all the support that I've been getting from my family, my husband, my children and everybody out there reaching out to help."
Family members' tearful pleas for her release drew widespread media attention and caught the attention of U.S. officials.
Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Arizona, said he's spoken about the case with the U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Mexico's ambassador in Washington.
Witnesses' testimony that Maldonado was only carrying a purse when she got on the bus is among the details that caught his attention, he said.
State Department officials said consular officials met with Maldonado Wednesday and last Friday.
U.S. diplomats did the same things they would when a U.S. citizen is arrested in a foreign country, but maybe to a higher degree because of the high-profile nature of the case, a senior administration official said.
CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.
31 May, 2013
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF30mQjLVB2G69EWTlbBHubjc39SQ&url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/justice/mexico-american-freed/?hpt=hp_t1
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