SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse man will represent himself when he is tried a second time for a hate-crime killing that left a transgender woman dead in 2008, according to First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio.

Dwight DeLee, 30, was found guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime for the shooting death of Lateisha Green, a transgender woman, after making gay slurs at her. But the same jury found him not guilty of regular manslaughter.

The verdict became the source of a prolonged court battle that eventually wound its way to the state’s highest court. The Court of Appeals ruled that juror confusion should allow for a retrial on the hate-crime charge.

DeLee’s retrial is set for March 11.

DeLee appeared in Judge Stephen Dougherty’s courtroom on Friday for a hearing on whether or not he could represent himself during the retrial. DeLee was represented by assigned lawyer Charles Keller. Last month, DeLee questioned whether Keller was actually trying to defend him.

Dougherty ruled Friday that DeLee can represent himself and that Keller would serve as standby counsel, Trunfio said.

DeLee was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009, released after a mid-level appellate court threw out the impossible verdict in 2013, then re-jailed in 2016 after the state’s high court ordered a new trial.

But the legal journey didn’t end there. DeLee then appealed the order from the state’s highest court by protesting a local judge’s implementation of the new trial order. That sent the case back to the appellate courts. And recently, the state’s high court refused to reverse itself. That means DeLee will go back to trial for a hate-crime manslaughter.

Green died Nov. 14, 2008, after she was shot outside a house party in Syracuse. She was 22.