Murderer Susan Neill-Fraser will find out on Tuesday whether a last-ditch appeal against her conviction is successful.
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The Court of Criminal Appeal is due to hand down its decision on Tuesday morning which could result in her freedom after 12 years in jail for killing for defacto partner Bob Chappell onboard their yacht Four Winds on Australia Day in 2009.
Mr Chappell's body has never been found.
Neill-Fraser (pictured) received a 23-year sentence for the murder and will be eligible for parole next year.
Justice Alan Blow ruled in 2010 that Neill-Fraser had attacked Mr Chappell onboard the yacht, lifted his body into a dinghy attached to the yacht, weighed down his body with a fire extinguisher, and dumped him in the River Derwent.
She first appealed her conviction in 2012, but that was dismissed.
Tasmanian Parliament in 2015 passed legislation which would allow for subsequent appeals against a conviction if they relied on fresh and compelling evidence that was not examined in an original trial.
At the original trial, the DNA of teenager Meaghan Vass that was found onboard the Four Winds was explored.
Ms Vass said she had never been on the yacht and the prosecution argued it probably appeared on the vessel through secondary transfer.
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At the appeal hearing this year, Ms Vass told the court she was onboard the yacht with two men the night Mr Chappell disappeared and Neill-Fraser was not.
She said one of the men had attacked Mr Chappell.
Ms Vass recanted that evidence a day later and said she had been coerced into saying that she was on the yacht that night.
Her evidence, which was abandoned by Neill-Fraser's legal team, was key to her appeal case.
Neill-Fraser's lawyer Robert Richter said the presence of the DNA of Ms Vass on the yacht would still be used in their argument of a wrongful conviction.
Justices Helen Wood, Stephen Estcourt and Robert Pearce can make one of three decisions on Tuesday: order a retrial of the case, dismiss Neill-Fraser's appeal, or acquit her.
- MATT MALONEY
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
