A three-judge French appeals court panel here announced that Einhorn could not be extradited to the United States because of incompatibilities between U.S. and French law. The judges also cited shortcomings of a 1993 Philadelphia murder trial in which an absent Einhorn was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend Helen "Holly" Maddux in 1977.

Hours after the Bordeaux ruling, a French magistrate in Angouleme, a town near the southern France village where Einhorn has been living under a false name for four years, ordered that he be set free pending future hearings on his illegal entry into France.

Annika Flodin, the daughter of wealthy Swedish parents who has supported Einhorn both emotionally and financially for years, jumped into the air and whooped with joy when Angouleme police told her to claim his belongings and take him away with her.

Einhorn's handcuffs were removed, and the two walked briskly to the steps of the imposing stone Angouleme courthouse, where they happily hugged and kissed in front of photographers. Einhorn said nothing to American reporters, and he angrily shouted "No! No! No!" when his private French attorney, Dominique Delthil, insisted on explaining the magistrate's decision to a small crowd of French and U.S. journalists.

The white-haired Einhorn and red-haired Flodin then drove to their home, a century-old converted mill in the village of Champagne-Mouton, for their first night together since Einhorn's arrest and jailing by French police last June 13.

Philadelphia's most notorious murder fugitive since he jumped bail in 1981 while facing trial for Maddux's murder, Einhorn still faces a legal battle in France.

Jacques Defos du Rau, the French prosecutor who supported the U.S. extradition attempts, immediately filed an appeal of yesterday's Bordeaux ruling. But he admitted later that "I think probably we will have very little chance of winning."

While that appeal is pending, the 57-year-old Einhorn has been ordered to remain in the area around Angouleme while he awaits a decision on his apparently illegal entry into France. He came here with Flodin, under the assumed name of Eugene Mallon, after hiding in Ireland, England and Sweden with police in pursuit.

He must report to his local police station twice a week and be available at all times for hearings in Angouleme, said his attorney Delthil.

During the closed magistrate's hearing in Angouleme, Delthil said he successfully argued that there was no chance of Einhorn running away again to another country because "France is the only place he doesn't risk anything; there is no reason he should flee."

Until there is a ruling on his illegal entry case -- which is expected to take months -- Einhorn can live freely in the scenic farming village of Champagne-Mouton, where several local residents have supported him in his extradition fight.

But if he is found guilty of illegal entry and of using false documents to obtain a French visa, said Angouleme prosecutor Joel Guitton, Einhorn could be imprisoned in France for a maximum of five years or expelled to any nation of his choice that agrees to admit him.

Yesterday's one-minute extradition hearing in Bordeaux capped an extraordinary 20-year drama that began in 1977 when Einhorn's girlfriend Maddux, a former cheerleader and Bryn Mawr graduate, disappeared. In 1978, her decomposed and bludgeoned body was found in a steamer trunk in Einhorn's Philadelphia apartment.

Einhorn, a left-wing hippie guru adored by Philadelphia's upper crust, was on the verge of going to trial for her murder in 1981 when he was able to skip town after being freed on a very low bail of $40,000 contributed by his friends.

In 1993, two years after a 1991 appellate court of Pennsylvania ruling strengthened the state's ability to try suspects who had fled before the beginning of their trials, Einhorn was tried in absentia and sentenced to life in prison for Maddux's murder.

It was that trial that proved the stumbling block to U.S. attempts to have Einhorn extradited to the United States and prison.

The three-judge French panel in Bordeaux noted that in France, suspects who have fled can also be tried in absentia -- but they are automatically granted a retrial once they are found. Since the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office could not offer a retrial for Einhorn, said the panel, his extradition would prove incompatible with guarantees offered to suspects and convicted criminals under both French and European law.

The panel also questioned the fairness of holding Einhorn's 1993 trial in absentia at all. That trial was permitted, they noted, under a 1991 Pennsylvania appellate court ruling; in 1981, when he fled, Einhorn "could not presuppose" that there could be a trial in his absence and also had no way of knowing the date of that trial.

With the 1991 ruling incorrectly applied retroactively to Einhorn's case, the judges said, he had no way of participating in his defense.

As their decision was announced in Bordeaux, Einhorn, wearing a dark blue shirt and jeans, smiled and then hugged Flodin, who rushed to his side in the courtroom. She was joined by six middle-aged supporters -- five women and one man -- who have fought his extradition as unfair.

"I don't like to see people hunted for a very long time," said one of the supporters, Michael Scott.

The only U.S. official present, liaison magistrate Jeff Brigham of the U.S. Embassy in Paris, had no comment on the ruling.

Afterward, Einhorn was detained for a few hours in the Bordeaux courtoom holding cell, then accompanied by French police to the Bordeaux prison and then the court in Angouleme.

By 5 p.m. French time, he was a free man, walking from the courthouse past construction workers with dust-covered faces and small children riding a merry-go-round. He carried a large cardboard box, presumably filled with his possessions and files, to the car of a middle-aged female supporter while Flodin went to find her car.

By 7 p.m., the two were back in their white converted mill house in Champagne-Mouton, where they unloaded boxes from the back of Flodin's car into their front door. Both refused to speak to a reporter.

"We've got everything, honey," Einhorn said to Flodin. "Just shut the door."

And they did.