Kentucky prosecutors lost a bid to reinstate the death penalty against Eugene Gall, convicted of raping and killing a 12-year-old Cincinnati girl.

        The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati refused Monday to reconsider an Oct. 30 ruling by a three-judge panel that said Mr. Gall was in sane at the time of the slaying and trial errors violated his constitutional rights.

        Mr. Gall, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to death in October 1978 for kidnapping Lisa Jansen as she walked to school, then raping and shooting her in Boone County.

        Mr. Gall, 53, had been on Kentucky's death row longer than any other inmate.

        His attorney, Erwin L. Lewis, said the ruling ends his Kentucky charges unless the state appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

        The state Attorney General's Office will decide shortly whether to seek that appeal, said spokesman John Cubine. Kentucky officials could seek to have Mr. Gall involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital.

        Mr. Gall faces a life sentence in Ohio for a separate murder conviction and up to 65 years in prison for a rape, robbery and attempted-rape conviction.

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