CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A federal judge has overturned the death penalty of Dale Wayne Eaton, Wyoming’s lone death row inmate.

U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne said Thursday that Eaton had not been properly represented by his defense lawyers during his trial.

The judge says Wyoming can grant a new sentencing proceeding for Eaton within 120 days or keep him locked up for life without parole.

The 69-year-old Eaton was sentenced to death in 2004 in state court for the 1988 rape and murder of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell of Billings, Montana.

His lawyers appealed to a federal judge after the Wyoming Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.

The lawyers argued that Eaton’s state defense team had failed to present information about his intelligence and the abuse he suffered as a child to give jurors reason to consider sparing his life.