(AP) — A federal judge says the three members of the Nebraska Board of Pardons will not have to give depositions explaining the pardons of six people wrongfully convicted of a 1985 Beatrice murder.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf’s order Monday granted the request of the Pardons Board members — Gov. Dave Heineman, Secretary of State John Gale and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning — to quash plans to question them.

The order came in the lawsuits filed by James Dean, Kathleen Gonzalez, Debra Shelden, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Joseph White and Thomas Winslow. They were convicted in the 1985 murder of Helen Wilson and spent a combined 87 years in prison before they were exonerated in 2008 after DNA testing implicated another man.

They say Gage County officials fabricated and coerced evidence.