Danbury — A Connecticut man who spent 48 years on the lam after escaping from prison is expected to fight an attempt to return him to Georgia.

Seventy-one-year-old Robert Stackowitz is set to appear in state court in Danbury for an extradition hearing Tuesday.

His lawyer, Norman Pattis, has said they will try to fight his return to Georgia, where he fled a prison work camp in Carrolton in 1968 while serving a 17-year sentence for robbery. Pattis says Stackowitz has major health problems including heart failure and bladder cancer, and any prison time would amount to a death sentence.

Connecticut officials have denied Stackowitz's requests to refuse to return him to Georgia.

Stackowitz was arrested May 9 at his Sherman home after his Social Security application turned up a fugitive warrant.