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RALEIGH (AP) — A disciplinary panel for lawyers stopped short Friday of disbarring former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley for his campaign finance-related conviction in 2010, saying there was no evidence he knew the contents of a document that served as the basis for the felony.

Instead, the three-member Disciplinary Hearing Commission panel suspended the law license of the two-term Democrat for another 11 months, meaning he could resume practicing law in December. His license was suspended in December 2010 while the N.C. State Bar investigated his case.

Easley accepted criminal responsibility in November 2010 for an improperly filed campaign finance report, ending both state and federal investigations into the ex-governor that began shortly after he left office in early 2009. Easley's plea for the lowest-grade felony in state law focused on a 2006 helicopter flight, valued at $1,600, that wasn't reported in an amended campaign finance report filed in April 2009.

Lawyers convicted of felonies often are disbarred, but the signed agreement says the panel concluded a lesser punishment was suitable because of the circumstances.

"There is no evidence that Easley had actual knowledge of the content of the campaign report," the agreement stated. "His denial of such knowledge is credible because he did not sign the report" and he was involved with governing the state when the original campaign committee finance report was prepared, it said.

Still, Easley accepted personal responsibility for the contents of the campaign report that formed the basis of the underlying conviction and there's no evidence of dishonest conduct or motive, the signed agreement said.

But the five-page document, also signed by Easley, his attorney and a lawyer for the State Bar, said any sanction less than suspension "would fail to acknowledge the seriousness of the offense committed by (Easley), would not adequately protect the public and would send the wrong message to attorneys and the public regarding the conduct" expected by Bar members.

Easley didn't attend the downtown Raleigh hearing, which lasted less than a half-hour.

The decision means Easley, a former state attorney general and local prosecutor before his 2000 gubernatorial election, could return to his line of work.

After leaving office, Easley, 60, joined the McGuireWoods law firm but is no longer working there. Easley graduated from the North Carolina Central University law school and was admitted to the Bar in 1976.