Michael Pardue can proceed with his civil rights lawsuit, ruled a federal appeals court.

Michael Pardue spent a staggering 27 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The charges he leveled at law enforcement are astounding.

Purdue says that Saraland, Alabama police and sheriff's investigators from Mobile County not only beat him, but also starved him and denied him access to a lawyer during his interrogation about the deaths of two service station operators in 1973. At the time Pardue was only 17 years old.

This same case was first thrown out of court in 2004. At the time the court ruled that the statute of limitations had been exceeded. That decision was overturned last week by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who ruled that he couldn't have filed the lawsuit until the charges had been dropped against him.

For more information about Michael Pardue's lengthy legal battle and difficulties, see this link.