MARK DOUGLAS | News Channel 8

TAMPA - One of the men charged with setting a man on fire in a racially motivated attack 17 years ago spent Thursday in court showing off some of the legal knowledge he's acquired behind bars.

Mark Kohut said he earned an associate's degree from one college while serving a life sentence and is now taking classes from another school. He's also logging a lot of time in the prison law library in an effort to overturn his conviction.

For his own safety, Kohut has served most of his Florida sentence in a New Mexico prison. He told a judge today he wasn't aware until his return in 2006 that changes in Florida law might strengthen his case.

"Since being here, I've spent as much possible time as I can in the library," Kohut testified in a Tampa courtroom Thursday "I've got a life sentence.