Court rips 'grossly erroneous' decision by judge presiding over LSU student's attack: 'Abuse of discretion'

Kerry Miller, the lawyer representing Madison Brooks' family after her death, sets ‘the record straight’ in an interview with Fox News Digital.

A Louisiana judge's dismissal of a 1972 rape conviction was a "grossly erroneous ruling," Louisiana's Supreme Court said in its ruling that overturned the decision.

Judge Gail Horne Ray, who's presiding over a high-profile case involving the alleged rape of LSU student Madison Brooks, dismissed Donald Ray Link's 1972 conviction, a motion that wasn’t even requested by his lawyers. 

Link and his lawyers went before Judge Ray to ask for parole eligibility; instead, he was cut free, which sparked a confrontation with the East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office.

"The district court judge's ill-conceived response to the order was to issue a grossly erroneous ruling that had a retaliatory if not contemptuous tone and, incredibly, resulted in the fashioning of an illegal remedy that even the defendant had not requested," according to the state Supreme Court's May 30 ruling.

JUDGE PRESIDING OVER LSU STUDENT'S RAPE CASE MAKES UNPRECEDENTED DECISION, SPARKING QUESTIONS OF CONFLICTS

Judge Gail Horne Ray, who is presiding over the alleged rape case involving LSU sophomore Madison Brooks, made an unprompted, unprecedented decision to vacate a 1972 rape conviction during the defendant's hearing to request parole eligibility.  (State of Louisiana)

The two-page decision, which was obtained by Fox News Digital, is rife with harsh language about Ray. 

"It is certainly not a means by which a district court can vacate a decades-long, final conviction in response to a motion to clarify sentence," a state Supreme Court judge wrote in the decision. 

EXCLUSIVE: LSU DEATH: MADISON BROOKS' LAST