INDIANAPOLIS | Attorneys for a Griffith man convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son three years ago asked the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday to cut the killer's 90-year sentence in half or order a new trial.

The latter could put the death penalty back in play for David Green, who received consecutive 45-year prison terms last year for beating, strangling and stabbing Stacy Green in their Griffith home on Nov. 2, 2004. The Greens had been estranged for nearly two years, but Stacy was just days away from delivering the couple's third child.

David Green, 32, had not been charged when he gave prosecutors a statement that is at issue in his appeal. Green admitted to having a fight with his wife, but he said she attacked him with a knife and her death was accidental.

Lake County prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty in exchange for the statement, which later was presented to the jury over Green's objections. But David Green's attorneys told the Supreme Court the pretrial statement -- placing him at the crime scene -- should have been treated like a plea agreement, making it inadmissible at trial.

"They're were no charges filed at the time," countered Cindy Ploughe, criminal appeals chief for the Indiana attorney general's office. "The defendant was well aware when he made the statement that it was going to be admissible later on."

The Supreme Court ruling on the pretrial statement could lead to a new trial, raising the possibility of a death sentence. But Stacy Green's father, James Skoronski, said the family doesn't want to go through another trial, even if it means a chance for a harsher penalty.

"We want this thing to end," Skoronski said, surrounded by nearly a dozen family members who came to watch Thursday's hearing.

David Green's attorneys also told the justices he should have been sentenced to concurrent -- not consecutive 45-year sentences. But Ploughe argued doing so would cheapen the life of either Stacy Green or the unborn son the couple had already named Nathaneal.

David Green's attorneys contend that existing case law requires judges to prescribe concurrent sentences when they identify more mitigating than aggravating factor to a crime, as Lake Criminal Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. did at Green's sentencing.

David Green's parents and sister said a favorable decision on the sentencing issue would allow their loved one to leave prison in his 50s, rather than his 70s. The family, which attend Thursday's hearing, still believes David Green's claim of innocence.

"We stand behind our son. We continue to," said Valinda Green, David's mother.