BATON ROUGE - A federal appeals court ruled Kevan Brumfield is not eligible to be put to death.

Earlier this month, his attorneys asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to declare him mentally disabled. In its decision, the court wrote Wednesday, "Brumfield is intellectually disabled and, accordingly, ineligible for execution."

Brumfield and Henri Broadway were both convicted of the murder of Baton Rouge Police Cpl. Betty Smothers and the wounding of Kimen Lee while Lee was making a grocery store bank deposit in 1993. Smothers was working off-duty security at the time.

When Brumfield's attorneys initially raised the mental issue, U.S. District Judge James Brady ruled that it prevented Brumfield's execution. The Fifth Circuit overturned Brady's ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court decided 5-4 in June to send the case back to the Fifth Circuit for reconsideration.

The District Attorney's Office said it was reviewing the opinion and would release a comment Thursday.

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