TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that a former Jefferson County prosecutor cannot claim absolute immunity from lawsuits filed by a man who spent nearly 16 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling in a lawsuit filed by Floyd Bledsoe against former Jefferson County prosecutor Jim Vanderbilt. Bledsoe claims Vanderbilt and others fabricated evidence to convict him in the 1999 murder of 14-year-old Camille Arfmann near Oskaloosa.

Bledsoe was released from prison in 2015 after his brother, Tom, confessed in a suicide note that he killed the girl.

In May, Bledsoe received a $1 million settlement from the state of Kansas for his wrongful conviction.