North Dakota prosecutors are urging a federal judge to dismiss an appeal by convicted murderer Kyle Bell.
Bell, who is serving a life sentence for the 1993 abduction and murder of 11-year-old Jeanna North in Fargo, alleges in a petition that his due process rights were violated.
At least three previous appeals by Bell have been rejected. Bell, who escaped from custody for 88 days in 1999, is serving his sentence in a federal prison in Colorado.
He also is serving 30 years for unrelated child sex crimes.
Bell's latest appeal is, by his own admission, grasping for legal straws.
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"I believe I have to the best of my abilities exhausted my remedies," he wrote.
"I am not an attorney and really do not know what I am doing except fighting an illegal conviction and illegal confinement."
A response filed in U.S. District Court in Bismarck filed Tuesday by the North Dakota Attorney General's Office said Bell's petition lacks any legal merit and is riddled with procedural errors.
