A man who has spent 25 years on Alabama’s death row is eligible to be retried for the 1988 murder of a deputy sheriff, a federal appeals court ruled this week, because prosecutors violated his constitutional rights by intentionally rejecting Black potential jurors.

In a decision issued on Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit found that prosecutors in Montgomery County, Ala., had violated Michael Sockwell’s 14th Amendment rights by systemically excluding Black jurors from his 1990 trial, fearing they would be sympathetic based on his race. Mr. Sockwell, now 62, is Black.

The court determined that prosecutors “repeatedly and purposefully struck Black jurors, making only dubious and capricious excuses.”

“Michael has been denied his right to a fair trial for 35 years,” Michael Rayfield, one of Mr. Sockwell’s lawyers, said in a statement. “We’ll continue to fight for his freedom.”

“Michael’s constitutional rights are being violated daily and that likely won’t end until he is released,” Christos Papapetrou, another lawyer for Mr. Sockwell, said in a separate statement.

The Alabama attorney general’s office and the Montgomery County district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.