A judge has overturned a Topeka man’s conviction in a 1996 murder outside a Lawrence nightclub, leaving prosecutors to decide whether to undertake the challenge of retrying the case after nearly a decade.

Attorneys said Wednesday they’d learned that Douglas County District Judge Michael Malone had ordered a new trial for Damon L. McCray, 32, who was convicted in the Aug. 15, 1996, shooting death of Onzie Branch in the parking lot of Langston’s Nightclub, 806 W. 24th St.

McCray’s first trial ended in a hung jury, but prosecutors tried the case again and he was convicted of first-degree murder. The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1999, but McCray later filed a civil lawsuit in District Court seeking a new trial.

A copy of Malone’s ruling was not available Wednesday evening, but attorneys said it was based on a finding that then-Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney’s office withheld potentially exculpatory information during McCray’s second trial that was learned during his first trial.

The information prosecutors failed to disclose involved a jailhouse informant who initially claimed to have heard McCray make statements about the shooting. Prosecutors planned to call the informant as a witness during the first trial, but they learned during trial that he had recanted his story.

They didn’t inform McCray’s attorney of that, and they ended up not calling him as a witness.

Kenney, who was defeated by Charles Branson in the November election and is now a federal prosecutor, declined to comment on specifics of the case, but she defended her office’s work.

“I’m disappointed. It was a well-tried case,” she said. “It was a difficult case to try, and I am sorry to see this result.”

Branson said his office learned of Malone’s decision late Tuesday and immediately began contacting police to see whether they thought they would be able to reach witnesses.

Branson said it was also possible his office would appeal the decision.

In the meantime, McCray, who has been incarcerated at the state prison in Hutchinson, will remain in custody and will be brought back to Douglas County for a trial date to be set, Branson said.