Condemned cop killer Ronell Wilson has risen from the dead.
A state appeals court has reversed the decision, which called the death row convict “civilly dead,” that denied him access to the baby he fathered with a prison guard while in lockup.
A Suffolk County Family Court judge ruled last year that Wilson, 32, had no paternal rights to his son because he was considered under the law to be civilly dead.
Not so, a panel of judges on the state Appellate Division ruled Wednesday, because Wilson was sentenced to death in federal court, not state court.
More importantly, the state law provision applies to persons serving life in prison, not sentenced to death.
Wilson’s petition for visitation rights has been returned to the Family Court.
Wilson was awaiting a retrial on his death sentence when he had an illicit affair with prison guard Nancy Gonzalez at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
She was arrested for having sexual intercourse with a prisoner before she gave birth to a son she named Justus.
The boy was later removed from her custody when authorities learned she was driving drunk with the baby in the car.
Wilson currently resides on death row in Terre Haute, Ind.
He was convicted of murdering undercover NYPD Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews in 2003 during a gun buy-and-bust operation that went bad in Staten Island.
Wilson’s lawyer, Yusuf El Ashmawy, said it is important for his client to be declared legally the father of the boy.
“He really wants this fact acknowledged so his family could be available to the child and petition for visitation,” El Ashmawy told the Daily News.