A Brooklyn appeals court said a man’s 20-year-old murder conviction that a lower court tossed out last year should have stuck, finding that the prosecution in the case played by the rules and did not withhold key evidence from the defense.

Last year, Tasker Spruill, who was convicted of a murder almost 20 years ago that he says he didn’t commit, became one of the dozens of prisoners who have had the chance to walk free from Brooklyn Supreme Court after a judge ruled in their favor, stepping out of the courtroom unshackled to greet elated relatives and news cameras.