A life sentence given in a York County murder case before the S.C. Supreme Court has attracted the attention of veteran ex-prosecutors and national legal experts, who say it is a classic case of an innocent man being sentenced to life in prison for murder.

The case of the State vs. Billy Wayne Cope involves a surprise DNA match, a possible false confession and questions about whether police and prosecutors overreached.

"Whatever the Supreme Court decides to do, we will be teaching this case for the rest of my career," said University of South Carolina Law School legal ethics professor Greg Adams.

Last month, Adams devoted an entire legal ethics class with some 50 second- and third-year law students to the case. Cope, now 48, in 2004 was convicted of murder and criminal sexual conduct in the strangling death of his daughter Amanda, 12.

In February, Cope's case will be a centerpiece of a two-day national conference at USC on ethical questions surrounding prosecutors in wrongful-conviction cases, Adams said.

For 20 months, the case has been before the S.C. Supreme Court. It has not yet decided whether to grant a hearing for a new trial.

A major issue stems from DNA found in saliva and semen on Amanda's body. It was a perfect match - but not for Cope.

Instead, the DNA matched that of James Sanders, now 52, an ex-con, sex predator and burglar later charged with breaking into four houses in Cope's neighborhood and assaulting women just after Amanda was murdered. Police didn't learn that DNA results linked Sanders - but not Cope - to Amanda until nine months after Cope had been charged.

After learning the DNA results, surprised police didn't drop charges against Cope. They devised a new theory, accusing Sanders of Amanda's rape and death, too. Under this theory, Cope had let Sanders into his house and watched or helped Sanders kill and rape Amanda. However, although each were charged with conspiracy to commit the crime and the crime itself, no evidence existed that Cope - a white man - had ever known Sanders, who is black. Nonetheless, prosecutors, in large part because of confessions Cope made to Rock Hill police - although Cope recanted before trial - went ahead with the case. In 2004, a York County jury convicted both men in a joint trial of murder, criminal sexual conduct and conspiracy. Sanders' DNA on Amanda and the lack of ties between Sanders and Cope were some of the issues that drew the attention of Columbia defense attorneys John Barton and Sherri Lydon.

In earlier careers as prosecutors, Barton and Lydon were known for putting well-known suspectsin prison. As former prosecutors, both say, they never would have put Cope on trial.

Two defense lawyers with national reputations on wrongful convictions are handling Cope's appeals for the defense. Neither would normally would get involved in a South Carolina case, but each said the Cope case should be reversed.

"It's a miscarriage of justice," said David Bruck, who works on a Washington and Lee University School of Law project involving Virginia death penalty cases. For more than 25 years, Bruck handled South Carolina death penalty trials and appeals, helping to overturn dozens of death sentences and convictions in the S.C. Supreme Court. He also won six of six victories in the U.S. Supreme Court in S.C. death penalty cases.

"Red flags are everywhere in the Cope case," said Steven Drizin, one of a handful of legal experts on false confessions nationwide. He works at the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern School of Law in Illinois.

On the other side are respected S.C. prosecutors, including then-16th Judicial Circuit solicitor Tommy Pope. The current solicitor, Kevin Brackett, was Pope's assistant and the lead prosecutor at Cope's and Sanders' trial. Don Zelenka, an assistant deputy state attorney general who is handling the prosecution's appeal, has more than 30 years experience arguing major criminal appeals before the Supreme Court.

Law professor Adams said the case illustrates problems that arise when prosecutors and police zero in on one suspect at a case's outset. "A prosecutor has a responsibility to seek justice, not only to convict," Adams said.

Brackett said: "There are false confessions - I believe that. But this is not one."