A federal appeals court said a man convicted of sending threatening letters to Gov. John Hoeven, Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness and Fargo police officers should be resentenced for his crimes.

U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland, who sentenced Patrick McMorrow to 11 years and eight months in prison, gave McMorrow a lighter sentence than federal guidelines called for, and did not adequately explain his decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

Now the case returns to Hovland, who will have another chance to lay out his reasons for the October 2004 sentence. McMorrow had been facing a potential life prison term, and U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley had asked that he get 30 years.

Wrigley said Monday that federal prosecutors will again request a 30-year sentence for McMorrow. He is 53 years old and being held at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., the federal Bureau of Prisons Web site says.

McMorrow was convicted in July 2004 of mailing threatening letters, extortion and threatening the use of a weapon of mass destruction. He had said he would "declare war" on the city of Fargo unless he was paid $40 million.

At the time, McMorrow was serving a prison sentence in Bismarck for terrorizing, violating a protection order and failing to register as a sex offender.

McMorrow had appealed his conviction, saying he agreed to have his case heard by a jury of 10 people instead of 12 because he feared repercussions if he did not. The appeals court ruled McMorrow consented to have his case heard by a smaller jury.

In sentencing McMorrow, Hovland imposed a shorter sentence than federal guidelines called for because he believed McMorrow was not serious about his threats, and suffered from diminished mental capacity, court records say.

The appeals court ruled Hovland will have to offer a more detailed justification. For example, Hovland concluded that few people took McMorrow's threats seriously, but "the conduct of the recipients belies this conclusion," the court said. "They forwarded the letters to law enforcement authorities, who in turn investigated and interviewed McMorrow."