ATLANTA --- A divided Georgia Supreme Court over-turned a system of three-judge panels that has reduced prison sentences for hundreds of inmates, but stopped short of reinstating the original prison terms.

The court's 4-3 ruling on Monday said reversing sentences that have already been reduced by the panels would amount to "double jeopardy," a blow to prosecutors who have long argued that the original prison terms should remain intact.

"I'm absolutely disappointed in this ruling," said J. Brown Moseley, a former district attorney in southwest Georgia who brought the case. "I think they've lost sight of what the laws are made for."

Defense attorneys who defended the panels were delighted with the ruling.

"It's a victory for us," said Bruce Edenfield, an attorney who argued that the panels were both legal and legitimate. "I feel vindicated."

To defense attorneys, the panels provided a way to appeal harsh or unjustified sentences and a way to foster more uniformity across Georgia in criminal sentencing.

But prosecutors argue the panels have been abused by defendants eager to skirt a judge's decision and they have been looking for ways to get rid of them since they were created more than three decades ago.

The majority opinion, written by Justice George Carley, said once a defendant has already begun to serve a sentence that was shortened by the panels, "the constitutional principle of double jeopardy precludes an increase in punishment."

In dissent, Justice Robert Benham wrote the state constitution grants lawmakers the authority to create the panels.