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The man jailed last year for the murder of German backpacker Birgit Brauer plans to appeal his conviction.
Michael Scott Wallace was sentenced to life in prison after the 28-year-old tourist's body was found at Lucy's Gully, southwest of New Plymouth, in 2005.
Wellington lawyer Greg King said he would challenge DNA evidence used in the case at a Court of Appeal hearing later this year, the Taranaki Daily News reported today.
Mr King said he would dispute the accuracy of the DNA technique called low copy number (LCN) analysis.
He cited the case of Sean Hoey, who was freed last year after being accused of 29 counts of murder for the Omagh bomb attack in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1998.
The Hoey case was built on forensic evidence - DNA in particular - but a judge said questions surrounding the reliability of that evidence, along with "deception" on the part of police, led to his release.
Crown solicitor Tim Brewer said the Court of Appeal would look at issues raised by Mr King.
"If it concludes that the reliance upon unreliable evidence could have resulted in a miscarriage of justice then it will order a new trial," he said.
But he said the Crown would argue the evidence in question was not central to the trial, regardless of whether it was proved not to be reliable.
- NZPA
