Judith Ann Neelley, convicted and originally sentenced to die for the 1982 brutal slaying of a 13-year-old girl in DeKalb County, on Wednesday won a legal battle in her fight to one day get a shot at parole.
The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Neelley can proceed with her lawsuit challenging an Alabama law enacted in 2003 aimed at retroactively preventing her parole.
The appeals court reversed U.S. District Court Judge Keith Watkins’ ruling that says Neelley’s 2014 lawsuit challenging that state law – Act 2003-300 – was filed too late under the statute of limitations. Watkins had said she should have filed the lawsuit in 2003.
In its opinion on Wednesday the appeals court states that the Parole Board initially thought the 2003 Act did not apply to Neelley because the retroactivity clause went back to 1998 and she committed her crime in 1982.
Information provided by Al.com
