Howard, 52, wants to be freed on bail while prosecutors decide if they will re-try him 20 years after a double murder conviction marked by misconduct from Durham police and the prosecutor disbarred over the Duke lacrosse case.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals lifted a stay Tuesday, clearing the way for Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson to grant Howard bail.
Hudson previously ruled there was no physical evidence connecting Howard to the 1991 murders of a woman and her 13-year-old daughter - and overturned the conviction. The state must now decide if they will re-try him.
Howard was sentenced to 80 years in prison for strangling 29-year-old Doris Washington and her daughter, 13-year-old Nishonda, then burning their apartment. Both showed evidence of rape.
But at Howard's trial, former Durham prosecutor Mike Nifong and a police detective told jurors there was no evidence of sexual assault.
New DNA tests implicate another suspect.
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