HOUSTON -- An appeals court has upheld a federal judge's ruling that a millionaire former bookie acquitted in state court for the 1997 contract killing of his wife would not face double jeopardy in a pending federal murder-for-hire case.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday affirmed U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal's July ruling that a federal trial would not violate Robert Angleton's constitutional protection against being tried twice for the same offense.

Rosenthal rejected the request, invoking a legal doctrine that allows federal and state governments to try a defendant for the same crime if the act violated both federal and state laws.

Robert Angleton's attorney, Michael Ramsey, said the appeals court's decision was not unexpected.

"It is unfair that state verdicts are good enough to execute people but not good enough to exonerate," he said.

Ramsey said he will appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Angleton was arrested Jan. 25 at his River Oaks home after a three-count federal indictment accused him of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, murder for hire and a firearms charge.

He had been acquitted of his wife's murder, but the FBI contends that it has new evidence.

Angleton has pleaded not guilty.

His wife, Doris Angleton, was shot to death in April 1997 at her home in the wealthy Houston neighborhood of River Oaks. State authorities charged Robert Angleton and his brother, Roger, with capital murder that fall.

Roger Angleton committed suicide in the Harris County Jail. In a suicide note, he admitted he killed Doris Angleton and said his brother was not involved.

Robert Angleton was acquitted in 1998 and shortly after that FBI agents began investigating him.

In August, he was also indicted for evading more than $1 million in federal excise taxes.

The case drew more attention in 2001 when Vanessa Leggett, a fledgling crime writer chronicling the murder, was jailed on contempt charges for nearly five months when she refused to surrender her research to a grand jury.