.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. has ordered prosecutors to retry or free Paul House.

In Nashville, U.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. has ordered prosecutors to retry or free Paul House. House, sentenced to die for the 1985 slaying of a young mother, has been in legal limbo while a prosecutor battled efforts to have him retried. Now the state will have to do just that, following a ruling by Judge Mattice Jr. that says if the prosecution doesn't begin to retry House by June 17 then he must be released. District Attorney Paul Phillips says he will be ready to start House's new trial by Mattice's deadline, though he doesn't plan to seek the death penalty again. House's attorney Stephen Kissinger said he plans to appeal Mattice's order with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, and will ask that House be released and prosecutors be barred from retrying him. Kissinger says he's concerned once the case heads back to state courts, House will languish even longer in prison. House was sentenced to death in 1986 for the July 1985 rape and murder of Carolyn Muncey. Years later, the advent of DNA evidence revealed House did not rape Muncey. The semen found on her body belonged to her husband. (see also April 7 and May 5, 2008)