The State Superior Court determined that the prosecution had withheld significant exculpatory evidence and impeachment evidence in the first trial. It overturned the conviction in 2002, and remanded the case to the lower court for a new trial. Gell was acquitted in 2004 in his second trial and freed from prison, receiving a full exoneration that year. As a result of this case, the state legislature passed a law affecting every felony case in the state; it requires "prosecutors to share their entire file with defendants, a change designed to prevent the misconduct that put Gell on death row."Joseph Neff, "For Alan Gell, a wedding that could have happened long ago", News Observer, February 2015; accessed 5 June 2017
