Historic reforms in South Australia now allow prisoners a second chance to appeal their convictions.
It's the most significant change to Australia's criminal appeals laws in a century and experts say other jurisdictions are likely to follow suit.
As Karen Ashford reports, the changes have been widely welcomed as an important new tool in addressing miscarriages of justice.
Aboriginal man Derek Bromley hopes to be amongst the first to use the new laws.
Supporter Robyn Milera says he's served nearly 30 years in jail for a murder he says he didn't commit.
"With the change in legislation finally he'll have a right of appeal against the conviction of murder. He's maintained his innocence for all of that time consistently and he's had support of many advocates but this is the breakthrough we need in order to get back to the court and hopefully sort this out."
The breakthrough she's referring to is legislation allowing compelling, new evidence to trigger a second appeal.
In Derek Bromley's case, Ms Milera believes evidence that emerged after the previous unsuccessful appeal will hopefully prompt the Crown to reopen matters.
"Especially when you're talking about the liberty of individuals, it underpins our democracy, it underpins what we all believe we deserve. Don't assume everyone who's in prison is there justly, because it can happen to any of us I think."
Derek Bromley's circumstances are unusual - he became eligible for parole 6 years ago but is no closer to freedom.
His lawyer, Christopher Charles, says prisoners must undertake mandatory resocialisation before the parole board can consider their release, but he's not been given the opportunity to learn how to live outside of prison.
"He needs to have contact with everyday life of the citizen in order to be resocialised. He needs to have more contact with his relatives than he's receiving, he needs to deal with bus tickets, he needs to deal with phone bills, he needs to deal with gas bills, electricity bills, to live the life of a normal citizen and that has been denied him under the present regime and that in my view is quite unsatisfactory because it's what's effectively preventing him from receiving a recommendation for parole."
As Legal Services Director at the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, Mr Charles says the new appeals law offers fresh hope to a prisoner who's worked hard to earn his release but has been stymied by bureaucracy.
"I think that Mr Bromley has done everything he could do, and I say that after serious consideration. Mr Bromley has been very compliant, very helpful, he has done all of the courses that were required of him, he's done all the programs that were required of him, he's done everything that was required according to the criteria the Parole Board set and indeed specific extra psychological reports were provided to the parole board by ALRM at his request."
Legal Academic Doctor Robert Moles says Derek Bromley's protestations of innocence have kept him behind bars for longer than many who willingly admit their guilt.
"Where a prisoner claims that they are a victim of a miscarriage of injustice and they haven't in fact committed the crime for which they've been convicted, then their non-parole period doesn't count for anything, because when they reach that time they will be asked whether they have remorse for what happened, they will say they didn't do it and then they will be told they are not eligible for parole. In fact Mr Bromley is now six years over his non-parole period and that seems to be to be completely irrational. It's actually costing $80,000 a year to keep a person in prison for no particular reason other than that they won't say sorry and in circumstances where they have eminent legal and forensic experts to say that their claim to be a victim of a miscarriage of justice is perfectly reasonable."
South Australia's Attorney General John Rau says the laws are designed to respond to those few cases where compelling, fresh evidence emerges that reveals a possible injustice has occurred - such as a new witness coming forward or via new technology such as DNA testing.
"This is not a new layer of appeal that's being whacked on top of everything that's here now. This is not an automatic thing that every unhappy person in prison is going to be able to take advantage of. This will be something where the threshold to take advantage of it is going to be relatively hard to clear. But every now and then there are going to be people who do clear it, and in those circumstances this is actually a very important step forward."
That's a step John Rau thinks is likely to set a national precedent.
"I hope if this works well other jurisdictions will say this is a sensible, pragmatic way of improving the justice system."
Dr Robert Moles has written a book on miscarriages of justice that contributed to the development of the new laws.
He thinks the changes will strengthen confidence in the courts.
"And that brings about an enhanced respect for the legal system. So what I would say to the judges and lawyers in South Australia and around Australia is, if we do our jobs properly and fix up the errors when they occur, then the wider public will have greater respect for the legal system."
For one eminent jurist, it's a welcome fix to a long-standing frustration.
"Even if you've the most powerful evidence that a person is actually innocent, that can't be considered by the highest appeal court in the country, so that's a definite blemish on our system of justice."
Former High Court Judge Michael Kirby says it's been a source of some anguish to him that current laws have prevented appeals courts considering new evidence, forcing him to refuse an innocent man's appeal and condemning him to an extra ten years in prison until finally exonerated.
Mr Kirby says although the South Australian changes aren't perfect and aren't as comprehensive as Britain's Criminal Cases review Commission, they are a step in the right direction.
"It happened in the 1970s when South Australia was a real leader in Australia in matters such as consumer protection, environment protection and reform on the laws of homosexual offences - all of these were tried first in South Australia and then they were copied throughout Australia. As to whether this particular reform will be copied I'm not so sure. There are a lot of people, particularly I would say sometimes people in the law who have a great yearning for finality. And finality is very important.when a case has gone to a jury and gone to an appeal court people want to say, "Well that's it, go away and do your time". But unfortunately evidence shows that sometimes serious miscarriages of justice do fall through the cracks and we should always remain vigilant about that and we should always be open- minded to the possibility that a miscarriage can be demonstrated, and that's what the new legislation provides and I hope other jurisdications in Australia will follow suit."
Robyn Milera thinks the laws are good new not just for Derek Bromley, but for indigenous justice generally.
"I think that it's going to make quite a lot of difference across the board for Aboriginal people dealing with the legal system."
Michael Kirby says Aboriginal people are likely to be significant users of the new law given their high representation Australian jails.
"Because such a large proportion of our prison population - I think it's about a quarter or more than a quarter - although the Aboriginal population itself is only about two per cent, such a large proportion are Aboriginal then one would expect that a provision like this will be applied and will be sought for in large numbers of cases involving Indigenous Australians."
Similar laws in the United Kingdom have seen hundreds of wrongful convictions overturned, including more than 70 murder convictions.
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