LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge has vacated the murder conviction of a 78-year-old Las Vegas woman who spent 20 years in prison for the 1994 killing of her millionaire husband until she was paroled in 2020.

Margaret Rudin was found guilty in 2001 of the death of real estate mogul Ron Rudin.

Prosecutors said he had been shot in the head as he slept at the couple's Las Vegas home and that his body was dumped in the desert.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported that U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware ruled Sunday that Rudin received ineffective legal representation from her late defense attorney.

She has maintained her innocence all along.

Rudin told the newspaper after being released that she was "very, very grateful."

Rudin turns 79 at the end of the month.

In 1997, she was indicted for the murder, which investigators said she did so for financial gain.

But she disappeared, and for two years, she was on the run before authorities received a tip that led to her arrest in Massachusetts in 1999.