( CNN ) -- A Florida court has vacated the murder conviction of former FBI agent John Connolly , the informant handler of convicted Boston mob boss James `` Whitey '' Bulger , according to court documents . Citing a statute of limitations issue , the Florida Court of Appeals reversed the 2008 second-degree murder conviction for Connolly 's alleged role in the 1982 death of a Florida businessman . In 2005 Connolly was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder . During his 2008 trial , prosecutors presented evidence that in 1982 , Connolly , then an FBI agent , schemed with Bulger and the Winter Hill gang to kill businessman John Callahan . It was revealed in court that Connolly , Bulger and associates met over several weeks before the slaying , but it was `` undisputed '' that hit man James Martorano , and not Connolly , fired the murder weapon . The jury convicted Connolly of second-degree murder with a firearm , a lesser included offense of first-degree murder . The Florida Court of Appeals on Wednesday determined that prosecutors had incorrectly requested that the jury be allowed to convict on second-degree murder with a weapon , instead of first-degree murder , because Connolly 's gun was not used in the crime . This allowance , the court said , subsequently reclassified and elevated Connolly 's conviction to a crime with a potential life sentence without a statute of limitation . Connolly was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2009 . In the 2-1 decision , the court reasoned , `` without the fundamentally erroneous reclassification '' of this murder charge to second-degree murder with a weapon , Connolly 's conviction would have been barred by the applicable four-year statute of limitations . The court vacated the conviction and remanded the case to the trial court , ordering that Connolly be discharged , adding that the `` discharge shall be stayed until any and all post-appeal motions are final . The U.S. attorney 's office in Boston expressed disappointment about the ruling . `` Today a Florida appeals court , in a split decision , reversed itself after unanimously affirming John Connolly 's murder conviction three years ago . The decision is surprising and disheartening , '' the office said in a statement . `` This case was hard fought and led to the successful prosecution of a deeply corrupt federal agent . We intend to urge the Florida Attorney General to challenge this decision . '' Connolly allegedly accepted payoffs and , in turn , tipped off Bulger and his associate Stephen `` The Rifleman '' Flemmi to the identities of cooperating witnesses and pending investigations , according to information revealed in court during Bulger 's racketeering trial last year . Connolly was serving a 40-year sentence on second-degree murder charges for allegedly leaking the identity of Callahan , who had agreed to cooperate against Bulger 's Winter Hill Gang . During the first two decades of his FBI career , Connolly won kudos in the bureau 's Boston office , cultivating informants against New England mobsters . Prosecutors during his trial said Connolly was corrupted by his two highest-ranking snitches : Bulger and Flemmi . Connolly retired from the FBI in 1990 and later was indicted on federal racketeering and other charges stemming from his long relationship with Bulger and Flemmi . He was convicted of racketeering in 2002 and was serving a 10-year federal prison sentence when he was indicted in 2005 in the Callahan slaying . Bulger gets 2 life sentences plus 5 years . Bulger housed at federal prison in Tuscon . CNN 's Jean Casarez , Sunny Hostin and Rich Phillips contributed to this report .
Former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted in 1982 murder . He is serving life sentence for the killing of a man who had been his friend and neighbor. Connolly was James `` Whitey '' Bulger 's FBI handler , allegedly took payoffs .