In photo, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, a white man who practices racism. [MORE] From [HERE] Prosecutors decided Wednesday not to put George Allen back on trial for a 1982 murder, but hours later the Missouri attorney general’s office said it would appeal a judge’s ruling that overturned Allen’s conviction. The state also is asking for an emergency order to keep Allen, 56, in prison until the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals can decide the matter. There is no timeline for what happens next.

“We believe the facts and circumstances of the case and the trial court’s findings should be examined by the appellate court as part of the normal safeguarding process,” the attorney general’s office said in a prepared statement. Barry Scheck of The Innocence Project, which took on Allen’s case along with the Bryan Cave law firm in St. Louis, called the attorney general’s move “disgraceful.”

“This is an overwhelming case of suppression of exculpatory evidence of actual innocence, (plus) a clearly false confession taken from a mentally disturbed person,” Scheck said. “The appeal is wholly without merit and just cruel.”

In a 75-page ruling on Friday, Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green voided Allen’s convictions for murder, rape, sodomy and first-degree burglary in the killing of 31-year-old Mary Bell. She was slain Feb 4, 1982, in her apartment in the LaSalle Park neighborhood.