TUCSON, Ariz. — A man who was convicted as a juvenile of killing nine people at a Buddhist temple near Phoenix could go free after a federal appeals court threw out his confession Thursday, ruling that it was coerced.

The decision by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means the murder convictions of Johnathan Doody, who was 17 when convicted, will be overturned. He will be freed unless he is retried or the government successfully appeals.

Doody was convicted in February 1994 and given a 281-year prison sentence for the slayings of six priests, a nun and two helpers during a robbery at the Wat Promkunaram temple west of Phoenix. He is serving that term and another 11 lesser sentences at an Arizona prison.

Kent Cattani, chief counsel of criminal appeals in the state attorney general's office, said his agency will file a petition for a hearing by the full court.

"We're delighted with this ruling," said Vicky Eiger, who with renowned law partner Alan Dershowitz handled Doody's appeal over the past dozen years.

"The 9th Circuit saw the validity of the arguments we've been making from day one. This confession was not voluntary," Eiger added.

Joseph Maziarz, assistant Arizona attorney general in the criminal appeals section, said the federal panel found that a state court's determination that Doody's statements were voluntary was an "unreasonable application' of U.S. Supreme Court case law.

"We obviously disagree," Maziarz said.

The appellate judges noted that Doody did not confess to any involvement in the temple killings for more than five hours after his 12 1/2-hour interrogation began _ after three officers had "subjected him to 45 minutes of repeated, overwhelmingly unanswered questions, interspersed with commands that Doody 'had' to answer."

The judges said, "This timing alone strongly suggests that his will was overcome ... by the officers' overall, interrelated, coercive messages that they would continue relentlessly questioning him until he told them what they wanted to hear, and that he would eventually have to do so."

Doody, who was born in Thailand to Buddhist parents, was spared the death penalty because a judge could not determine whether he was the trigger man.