ST. LOUIS (AP) – A Missouri judge has refused to grant freedom to a man convicted of sexually attacking and killing a St. Louis woman more than three decades ago.

Attorneys for the Midwest Innocence Project said Friday they were disappointed. Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green on Thursday ruled there was not enough evidence to back Rodney Lincoln’s claim of innocence in the death of 35-year-old JoAnn Tate. She was killed in her home in 1982. Her two young daughters were assaulted.

One of Tate’s daughters, Melissa Davis, now says she was wrong to implicate him in the crime. Attorneys for Lincoln also argued that trial testimony indicating that a hair found at the scene belonged to Lincoln was proven wrong by genetic testing.

The Missouri Attorney General’s office declined comment.