HAMMOND | Convicted murderer Jermaine Dodd could go free from prison under a Hammond federal court order unless Indiana courts give him the appeal to which a judge has ruled Dodd is entitled under the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Judge Philip Simon ruled Jan. 3 that Dodd was denied his right to an effective lawyer when his court-appointed appeals attorney, the late Ned Ruff, failed to properly handle the case.

Dodd and his step-brother, Eric Fitzgerald, of Texas, were convicted of murder in a joint trial in Lake Criminal Court in 2001 following the drive-by shooting death of Jerome Thomas.

Witnesses said the three men were involved in an altercation on Nov. 5, 1998, and Thomas was shot in the chest later that day when Dodd and Fitzgerald pulled their car up alongside the car in which Thomas was sitting.

Ruff died from cancer Dec. 29, 2006. A longtime attorney, Ruff played a key role in overturning the fraudulent 2003 East Chicago mayoral election and later became a city attorney when George Pabey was elected mayor in December 2004.

Ruff was not Dodd's trial attorney, but he was appointed to handle the appeal in 2001, court records show.

Ruff told state judges that Dodd had several good appeal options, including the state court's questionable decision to put both men in the same trial, forcing the defendants to claim in court that the other was the gunman, Judge Simon's opinion states.

But Ruff never raised that issue in court. Rather, he only argued that Dodd had an ineffective lawyer during the trial, Simon wrote.

Ironically, Simon ruled this month that it was Ruff who gave ineffective counsel by failing to appeal trial errors.

The case wound up in federal court as a habeas corpus petition, claiming Indiana appeals courts had denied Dodd his rights under the Sixth Amendment by refusing to hear all his complaints.

Attorneys for Indiana courts argued that Ruff's lack of an appeal on the trial errors was a strategic decision, not an omission. But Simon said it did not matter what Ruff's strategy was if he ignored Dodd's wish for an appeal.

"Dodd never had a direct appeal of his conviction, and consequently no appellate court has ever reviewed the trial record in this case," Simon wrote.

The federal judge ordered the Indiana Court of Appeals to accept Dodd's request for an appeal of alleged errors made at trial within 60 days. If an appeal is not given, Dodd has been ordered released from prison.