The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will decide on an appeal filed by a Los Angeles prosecutor accused of the wrongful conviction of a man who spent 25 years in prison for murder. The court's decision would set a precedent on whether prosecutors are protected by the principle of "absolute immunity" in all cases of wrongful conviction.

John Van De Kamp, the Los Angeles District Attorney in 1980 and California's Attorney General two years later, is asking justices to overturn a lower court's decision that ruled prosecutors could be sued for failing to ensure that evidence favorable to the defense is disclosed to the court.

De Kamp, who filed the appeal together with then Chief Deputy Curt Livesay, was sued by Thomas L. Goldstein for using false testimony from jailhouse informants to win a 1980 murder case. A jury found Goldstein guilty of shooting John McGinest in November 1979, and the case was based largely on testimony from a convicted felon who cooperated with the investigation in exchange for a shorter sentence.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year in favor of Goldstein, rejecting De Kamp's defense of "absolute immunity."