A federal judge has ruled that a Maui man serving at least 40 years in prison for a 1997 murder conviction did not receive a fair trial and should be retried or released from custody.

Judge David Ezra made the ruling in the case of Taryn Christian, 32, convicted in 1997 of stabbing Vilmar Cabaccang to death on Maui in July 1995.

Ezra ruled that Christian should have been allowed to present evidence that another man, James "Hina" Burkhart, confessed to at least three different people that he committed the murder.

In issuing the ruling, Ezra overturned the findings of the Maui circuit judge who heard the case, as well as the Hawai'i Supreme Court, which upheld the conviction in 1998 and again in 2004. Ezra's decision closely followed an Aug. 28 ruling by U.S. District Judge-Magistrate Leslie Kobayashi.

Maui County First Deputy Prosecutor Peter Hanano said last week his office is "very disappointed" with Ezra's ruling.

"We'll be looking into filing an appeal with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals," Hanano said.

Oklahoma attorney Mark Barrett, who regularly represents convicted felons who claim to be innocent, is co-counsel for Christian with local defense attorney Keith Shigetomi.

"We're very pleased with the ruling," Barrett said.

Barrett said he began working on Christian's case in 2002.

"It's been a long time," he said by phone.

"We're very happy we've obtained relief for a person who has always claimed his innocence."

Christian's mother, Lori Smith of Maui, who has helped mount numerous legal challenges to her son's conviction, said Friday that Christian was flown back to Ho-nolulu from an Arizona prison last week and is in custody here, awaiting further developments in his case.

"At this point, he doesn't quite know what to think," Smith said.

"He knows what the truth is, but because he doesn't trust the state he's not getting too excited," she said.

In a 35-page ruling, Ezra followed Magistrate Kobayashi's earlier ruling that rejected almost all of the claims raised in Christian's behalf by his legal team.

But he did rule that "the exclusion of the Burkhart confessions was contrary to clearly established federal law."

Prosecutors argued at trial and during the appeals that there had been no corroborating evidence that established whether the Burkhart confessions were "trustworthy."

Burkhart took the 5th amendment and did not testify during the trial.

Federal Public Defender Shanlyn Park, who represents Burkhart now in a pending gun case, did not respond to a request for comment.

Burkhart has a lengthy criminal history, with multiple convictions for drug felonies and a firearms felony.

In the pending case, Burkhart has pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. Honolulu police said they discovered the gun in Burkhart's backpack when he was stopped on Kina'u Street last year driving a stolen motorcycle.

The prosecution in the Christian case has argued that the defendant was convicted on the basis of a wealth of evidence that connected Christian to the Cabaccang killing.

He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The Hawai'i Paroling Authority later determined that Christian would not be considered eligible for parole until he served 40 years behind bars.