Military lawyers argued Thursday that Army Sgt. William Kreutzer — who killed an officer when he opened fire on his unit at Fort Bragg in 1995 — should be allowed to take back guilty pleas he entered during his original trial in 1996, according to a report in Friday editions of the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer.

Kreutzer has never denied firing at his unit, the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, early in the morning of Oct. 27, 1995, the Observer noted. Maj. Stephen Badger, an intelligence officer for the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, was killed. Eighteen others were injured.

Kreutzer was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to death. An Army appellate court overturned his death sentence in 2004, saying Kreutzer’s defense lawyers were ineffective, according to the report.

Kreutzer’s case is scheduled to be heard again in January, the Observer wrote. Thursday’s arguments came during a pre-trial hearing.

According to the report, Kreutzer’s lawyer, Maj. Eric Carpenter, argued that the proceedings should be paused so that Kreutzer’s case could be sent back to the Army Court of Appeals, and that new evidence showed Kreutzer had a mental illness that he was unaware of when he pleaded guilty.

A military psychiatrist evaluated Kreutzer after the shooting in 1995, and a military panel diagnosed him with adjustment disorder, the Observer reported. A different military psychiatrist, who evaluated Kreutzer for Thursday’s hearing — but did not evaluate him in 1995 — testified Thursday that adjustment disorder is too mild a description for Kreutzer’s mental illness.