BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal appeals court has revived a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the Baltimore mayor, the city’s police department and three of its officers.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel ordered that the suit, filed by James Owens, who spent 20 years behind bars after he was falsely accused of murder, will proceed more than two years after a judge dismissed the case.

Owens was convicted in 1988 of raping and killing a 24-year-old woman in her southeast Baltimore home, and was sentenced to life in prison. In 2008, charges were dropped and Owens was released after DNA testing exonerated him. Owens then filed a lawsuit against the city, the police department and the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office alleging that prosecutors and police withheld evidence from the defense.

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