MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Hennepin County judge has ruled that convicted serial killer Billy Glaze's appeal for innocence died with him.

Glaze was convicted of killing three women in Minneapolis in the 1980s. He died in prison last year.

Glaze long maintained his innocence. At the time of his death from lung cancer at age 72, attorneys with the Minnesota Innocence Project were trying to free him based on new DNA evidence allegedly pointing to another man.

Prosecutors moved to dismiss the appeal, saying it was moot. Innocence Project attorneys argued that not only was Glaze's reputation at stake, but there was public interest in learning whether the justice system worked fairly.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports Judge Toddrick Barnette has sided with prosecutors, saying there's no "live controversy" to be resolved.

___

More From KROC-AM