The bow-and-arrow killing might be headed to the Illinois Supreme Court, which could mean no retrial this year for suspect Bradley French.

French, 27, formerly of Varna, is accused of first-degree murder after prosecutors said he fired a razor-tipped hunting arrow at Joshua Scaman, of Ottawa, killing him. French was previously convicted of Scaman’s murder but an appeals court reversed his conviction and sent the case back to La Salle County for new proceedings.

Friday, French’s case was brought before a judge, but Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. was unable to set trial dates. French remains in the Illinois Department of Corrections — no prisoner transfers during the pandemic — and now the appellate prosecutor’s office thinks French’s conviction shouldn’t have been thrown out. They want the state's top court to consider the reversal before French stands for another jury trial.

French had told the Third District Appellate Court he should have been allowed to present a self-defense claim to his jury, which Ryan would not permit. The appellate justices sided with French, ruling even if he wasn’t justified in using deadly force against Scaman then it should have been for the jury to decide.

The appellate prosecutor’s office thinks the justices got it wrong and Ryan was correct in denying French a self-defense claim. To that end, the appellate prosecutor filed a petition for leave to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.

The state’s top court would first decide whether to take the case (they don’t have to). If they take it, oral arguments in Springfield and a ruling would be unlikely to happen until 2021.

Friday, Ryan set a Thursday, Sept. 17, status hearing for French. By that time, the Supreme Court should have at least decided whether French’s next hearing is in Springfield or in Ottawa.

Scaman died in 2015 of blood loss from a wound sustained in a parking lot at Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby. French told police he and Scaman had quarreled in the hours leading up to their confrontation, to which French arrived armed with a compound bow.

French eventually admitted firing the arrow but said he did so in self-defense. He was later sentenced to 30 years in prison before the reversal earlier this year.