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After 10 years in prison on a murder conviction that was eventually quashed, Rex Haig is still fighting.
But the 61-year-old father of three, whose dramatic story is told in a book about to hit the shelves, has fresh hope that he may soon get the result he has been fighting for.
Former High Court judge Robert Fisher, QC, has been appointed to report to the Government on whether Mr Haig should receive compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
Mr Fisher's recommendation is expected in the coming months.
Mr Haig says a hefty compensation payout would make a big difference in his life.
"I never had an income for 12 years. So I haven't been able to buy much. And it cost me a lot. So it's really going to put me back, hopefully, to what I was before."
He believes the release of his autobiography, Rough Justice: The Rex Haig Story, in June will put the spotlight on the "diabolical" justice system that he has fought against.
"People are going to gang up against them and demand that there be changes done. Because [the system] is completely and utterly inadequate."
Mr Haig was imprisoned after being found guilty of the 1994 murder of Invercargill fisherman Mark Roderique, a crew member on his fishing boat, the Antares, at Jacksons Bay, on the South Island's West Coast.
In August 2006, nearly two years after Mr Haig was released on parole, the Court of Appeal quashed the murder conviction and found there was an "evidential basis" to suggest Mr Haig's nephew and crewmate, David Hogan, may have been the killer.
Mr Hogan, who was given immunity by police to testify against Mr Haig, denies he was responsible.
In prison, Mr Haig came to know those at the centre of some of the country's other hotly debated criminal cases - David Bain, Peter Ellis and Scott Watson.
"I've been celled up beside Scott Watson for 3 1/2 months, and I don't think that is an accident. I think that is God saying Rex 'you know these people pretty much first-hand, and you are qualified to pass an opinion'."
"I've seen what an immense amount of nonsense has gone on with those cases, at an ongoing huge cost to the taxpayer."
Mr Haig estimates $15 million to $20 million of taxpayers' money has been spent on his case.
Yet his time in prison was not wasted, he says. It focused his mind, and gave him, for the first time, a full "wide view" of life.
Mr Haig is living with partner Erin Lewis in Christchurch and making a living installing heat pumps.
Mr Fisher's office told the Herald he would not be making any comment on Mr Haig's case.
