Hugh Clarke Jr., Mason’s attorney, said he submitted an appeal to the conviction as soon as Judge James Giddings sentenced Mason.

“It leaves a bad taste in my mouth,” Clarke said. “In my view, there’s no physical evidence.”

Jurors decided after four days of deliberation in March that Mason was guilty, but Clarke said jurors told him they didn’t believe Mason committed the stabbing and were unsure of his role in the murder.

“It becomes troubling when people say that,” Clarke said. “We believe there are some issues that the appellate court needs to take a serious look at.”

Mason’s sentencing occurred more than a month after Kumbi Salim, the other man convicted of Brown’s murder, was sentenced to 25-40 years in prison in August.

Salim, a former MSU student who also is known as Stanley A. Price, was charged with the crime in 2005 when the Ingham County Cold Case Task Force reopened the murder case about four years ago.

Brown died at the age of 20 at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital the night of the stabbing. He described his assailants as two black men wearing military fatigues.

Mason and Salim said through testimony that they were on campus to recruit students to a Detroit-based black social and history group, the Topographical Research Center, whose members wore military fatigues as an established uniform.

Clarke said no blood was found on Mason’s clothing and that a witness in Mason’s trial admitted he lied to police to avoid suspicion.

He expects the appeal process will not begin for several months.