A man convicted in 1991 in a murder-for-hire plot may walk free soon, after a federal judge overturned the conviction due to racially-motivated prosecutorial misconduct.

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price gave a press conference Wednesday to discuss the overturning of the conviction of 71-year-old Curtis Lee Ervin. Ervin was tried and convicted in 1991 alongside two other men for the 1986 murder-for-hire of Carlene McDonald.

McDonald's ex-husband, former Pinole resident Robert McDonald, hired Ervin and accomplice Arestes Robinson to kidnap and murder his wife — McDonald worked as an insurance agent and had taken out a life insurance policy on his ex-wife. Carlene McDonald was kidnapped from her El Sobrante home and taken to Berkeley's Tilden Park, where she was fatally stabbed and her body was dumped. Ervin and McDonald each received death sentences, while Robinson was sentenced to life in prison.

Ervin has long contended that Robinson did the actual killing, though he reportedly confessed to various incriminating aspects of the crime at the time of his arrest.

Both McDonald and Robinson ended up dying in prison within a few years, but Ervin appealed his case to the California Supreme Court, suggesting in part that there were irregularities in the jury selection. That court upheld the conviction back in 2000, and Ervin has remained in prison.

But this week, following a review by Attorney General Rob Bonta's office, a federal judge ruled the conviction must be thrown out, and Ervin should either be freed or re-tried within 60 days.

U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that former Alameda County Assistant District Attorney James Anderson had improperly excluded Black jurors from serving on the jury.

"Anderson, during jury selection, he exercised his peremptory challenges in a way to exclude nine out of 11 Black jurors and one Jewish juror, that were denied the opportunity, the right to serve on a jury on a death penalty case," said DA Pamela Price at the press conference, per KPIX. "This office did have a practice of excluding Black people and Jews from juries. And today as a result of that, the conviction was set aside... I now have the opportunity and the responsibility what will happen to Mr. Ervin."

Price added, "It is clear that the prosecution of this case was very problematic. And there’s evidence of serious prosecutorial misconduct, and a lack of accountability in this office at the time."

Price further said her office had reached out to McDonald's family and apologized for the situation. It's now up to her whether to order a retrial or set Ervin free.

Pamala Sayasane, an attorney who has represented Ervin for the past 23 years, tells the Atlanta Black Star this week, "We hope they will do the right thing and not retry this case. It’s been 38 years, and my client has always maintained his innocence, so we just hope they will do the right thing. You know, he’s not in good health. He just wants to live the rest of his life as a free man. It’s been a very long struggle for him."

Sayasane adds, "I hope Pamela Price will take a very good look at this case and see that the right thing to do is just to not retry a case that was full of tainted evidence and false evidence. … The right thing to do here is to release Mr. Ervin."

Photo of Curtis Lee Ervin via the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation