Crown Lawyers claim their case against convicted killer David Tamihere still stacks up without the evidence of a jailhouse informant, who provided false testimony to the jury.
The Court of Appeal is examining whether there was a miscarriage of justice when Tamihere was found guilty of killing two Swedish tourists three decades ago.
Double murderer Robert Conchie Harris was a key part of the Crown's evidence in the 1990 jury trial of Tamihere at the time, as a secret jailhouse informant.
Harris claimed then, while in prison together, Tamihere confessed to sexually assaulting and murdering Swedish tourists Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen.
But in 2017, it was proven to be all a lie and Harris was convicted of perjury.
"Put simply, the case put before this court is rather different to the case presented to the jury," Tamihere's lawyer James Carruthers said at the time.
In the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, Crown Lawyers accepted Harris's evidence should have never been used.
However, they didn't believe it was a miscarriage of Justice, and claimed it wouldn't have swayed the jury.
"Although it was an irregularity that the Harris evidence was before the jury, it was an inconsequential one which isn't capable of affecting the outcome," Crown Lawyer Rebecca Thomson said.
She stressed there was enough evidence without it.
"The crown submits the Harris evidence was that type of a slender strand, when you remove it the force of the crown case remains," Thomson said.
The court must now decide if a miscarriage of Justice has in fact occurred, and if they do, they could choose to quash his convictions, or even order a re-trial.
Justice Christine French reserved the decision until at least February next year.
"Obviously we want to get this right, and we need time," Justice French said.
Three decades after being convicted of the murders which he's always denied, Tamihere will have to wait a few more months to find out if his name will be cleared.
