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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In the face of outrage from victims and their families, North Carolina's governor on Thursday challenged a quarter-century-old policy on prison good conduct credits, saying she would not free a group of violent inmates who were sentenced to life in prison.

Gov. Beverly Perdue, awakened from sleep during a trade mission in China so she could make a judgment about the legal quandary, argued in a statement that she doesn't believe the Correction Department had the legislative authority to apply credits to inmates who are in for life. Her administration planned to deny the prisoners those credits, preventing their release until the issue was resolved in the courts. They had been scheduled for release next week.

The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled earlier this month in favor of prisoner Bobby Bowden, who argued a state law from the 1970s defined a life sentence as 80 years. Time-off credits allowed some like Bowden to get a day-for-a-day for good behavior, and 20 inmates qualified for release.

The Democratic governor said there was a real question whether the legislators intended for the prisons agency to have that kind of authority.

"I do not believe they did, and my legal counsel agrees," she said. "This raises the very real question that these inmates should not be eligible for early release."

The governor's office claims that inmates sentenced before the state's Fair Sentencing Act went into effect in 1981 should not have qualified for the good conduct credits offered under that law.

Attorney General Roy Cooper said his office advised the Correction Department "that no prisoners have to be released until further direction from the courts."

The potential release appalled victims, in part because most of the inmates would be freed without any post-release supervision. Only one would have official supervision, and the convicted rapists would have to register as sex offenders.

Pam Hurley, whose mother was killed by Bowden, said she thinks the reprieve may be just temporary.

"We are happy, but we are continuing to send letters and e-mails to get our message out. This should have never happened in the first place," she said. "Now that this has been breached, you'd be crazy to relax and think, 'Oh, well now it's all over.' It's not over. We know it's not over."

The governor's argument is the latest legal maneuver in a case that has been in the courts for years. Attorneys for the state argued before the Supreme Court last month that the law was "ambiguous," but justices unanimously agreed to allow a 2008 Court of Appeals decision stand. That announcement earlier this month left the state scrambling to prepare the inmates for release on Oct. 29.

Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, one of the Legislature's most influential leaders, said he backed Perdue's decision "until every legal avenue is exhausted."

"I am confident that the Department of Correction is under no obligation to release these prisoners next week," said Rand, D-Cumberland.

Staples Hughes, the state appellate defender whose office represented Bowden, said he would have to wait to find out why the governor thinks the credits were applied improperly.

"It's curious that after all these years, suddenly in the wake of all the publicity about this, they decide the credit was improperly given," he said.

Defense attorney David Rudolf of Charlotte, whose clients include former NFL player Rae Carruth and Duke lacrosse players, said Perdue can't change the rules.

"That creates a system that is unfair for everyone," he said in a statement. "The law is the law, and the governor is supposed to enforce it, not search for reasons to avoid it."

Correction Department records show the 20 have racked up more than 250 infractions in prison for offenses such as fighting, weapon possession and theft. Each of the 20 inmates has at least two infractions, and combined they have 256.