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1995 Murder Conviction In Maryland Overturned

BALTIMORE (AP) -- The Maryland Court of Appeals has overturned the murder conviction and life sentence of a Baltimore police officer accused of killing his 22-year-old mistress in 1993.

The state's highest court ruled 4-3 on Wednesday that James Kulbicki's lawyers did not question a ballistics expert on flaws in bullet analysis.

Kulbicki, now 57, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 in the shooting death of his mistress, Gina Nueslein. Her body was found in 1993 in Gunpowder Falls State Park.

The Daily Record reports that Judge Lynne A. Battaglia wrote for the majority that the expert's testimony relied on discredited theory about bullet fragments that were removed from Nueslein's body and Kulbicki's vehicle. She wrote that Kulbicki's lawyers failed to conduct an adequate cross-examination of the expert.

(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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