Moses jumped into a police car and was shot in the legs. Haskell survived.

Moses was found guilty of attempted murder and other felonies and sentenced by Circuit Judge Marie Milks to the state's harshest penalty of life without parole.

In 2002, the Intermediate Court of Appeals threw out his conviction after ruling that toxicology tests showing Moses had cocaine in his system at the time of the shooting should not have been admitted at trial. In his appeal, Moses contended that he never waived his right to confidentiality when his lawyer voluntarily turned over his records to prosecutors.

A year later, however, the Hawai'i Supreme Court ruled that the Circuit Court should have held a hearing to decide whether Moses waived his right to release his medical records. If he did, the court said, the Circuit Court should reinstate the convictions. If Moses did not, the court said, a new trial should be held.

In February 2004, Milks ruled that Moses did indeed consent to the release of his medical records and affirmed the convictions.

But Moses again appealed and claimed that he was denied "effective assistance of counsel" because his attorney provided a copy of his toxicology report to prosecutors without consulting Moses. Deputy Public Defender Debra Loy represented Moses at trial.

The Intermediate Court of Appeals yesterday agreed with Moses and his new attorney, Cynthia Kagiwada, that Loy mistakenly turned over the test results.

"By turning Moses' medical records over to the prosecutor, she was waiving Moses' physician-patient privilege," the court wrote. "These errors on the part of the deputy public defender reflected a lack of skill, judgment and diligence."

Prosecutors used the presence of cocaine in Moses' system against him at trial. In its ruling released yesterday, the court wrote that the errors by the defense attorney "undermined the credibility of Moses" and "resulted in the substantial impairment of a potentially meritorious defense."

"The prosecutor asked the jury who they were to believe: Moses, who was impaired by cocaine, or the police officers, who were not so impaired," the court wrote. "The Circuit Court instructed the jury that Moses' cocaine use could not be used as a defense, but could be used against him."

Tim Ho, state chief deputy public defender, said yesterday that he had not read the ruling and declined comment. The city prosecutor's office also could not be reached for comment.