U.S. District Judge Amanda Brailsford should have recused from a death row inmate's lawsuit over alleged prosecutorial misconduct due to the Idaho judge's friendship with a prosecutor named in the complaint, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said Brailsford "committed a clear abuse of discretion" by not recusing from Thomas Creech's lawsuit, which claims the Ada County Prosecutor's Office introduced tampered-with evidence in opposing his clemency petition at a hearing before the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole.