After a June 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision raised the standard for a defense lawyer's duty in death penalty cases, many standing death sentences began to be overturned. Marshall filed a petition arguing that his lawyer had not met minimal constitutional standards. Though lower courts initially rejected his argument, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph E. Irenas ruled on April 8, 2004 in Camden, New Jersey that Marshall received ineffective assistance from his attorney during the death penalty phase of his trial. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision on November 2, 2005. On March 20, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office. On May 12, 2006, Prosecutor Thomas F. Kelaher declined to retry the death-penalty phase of the case, citing as reasons the difficulty in presenting evidence more than 20 years after the crime, and the probability of many more legal appeals should Marshall be sentenced to death again. With resentencing pending, Marshall faced a minimum of 30 years in prison (in which case he would have been released in 2014) and a maximum of life in prison with no possibility for release on parole before serving 30 years. On August 18, 2006, Marshall was resentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole in eight years. This made Marshall, incarcerated since his arrest, eligible for parole in 2014. Until his removal from New Jersey's death row, Marshall had been the longest-serving inmate there since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1982.