The Attorney General of North Carolina has lodged an appeal against a decision by a US court to grant Molly Martens Corbett and her father Thomas Martens a retrial.
Last month, the pair won an appeal against their convictions for the murder of Irishman Jason Corbett five years ago.
Today, the attorney general lodged an appeal with the state's Supreme Court challenging the decision of a lower court to grant a retrial.
39-year-old Mr Corbett, from Limerick, was found dead at his home in North Carolina in August 2015.
His wife Molly and her father, a former FBI agent, were convicted of second-degree murder following a trial in 2017.
Last January, lawyers for the pair told the North Carolina Court of Appeal that they did not get a fair trial and that the trial judge had excluded critical evidence in their case.
They argued statements that Mr Corbett's children had given to social workers should have been allowed as evidence.
They also claimed the jury in the trial had disobeyed instructions from the judge not to have conversations among themselves about the case.
In its ruling last month, the North Carolina Court of Appeal said both defendants were entitled to a new trial.
