Harry "Breaker" Morant has been cleared in a legal decision set to pressure the Australian and British governments into finally pardoning the convicted war criminal.
More than 110 years after the Australian soldier was executed for killing prisoners during the Boer War, the Victorian Supreme Court heard a non-binding appeal on Saturday with two judges overturning his conviction.
The mock trial in Melbourne re-examined the case of Morant and co-accused Peter Handcock and found they were following a superior's orders - a legitimate defence in 1902 - when they killed 13 people in the final days of the South African conflict.
A third Australian, Lieutenant George Witton, was also sentenced to death for the killings, but had his sentence downgraded to life in prison.
Military lawyer Jim Unkles, who has campaigned to pardon Morant for the past four years, says he's elated with the non-binding legal decision.
"When you're accused of serious crimes, it doesn't matter if it was 100 years ago or today, you have a right to be tried according to law," he told AAP on Saturday.
"In the decision today, fair and square, the umpire says these men were not tried according to law."
Mr Unkles said it was a gross injustice for Morant to have been executed before he had a chance to appeal the verdict.
While appeals to reopen the case to both British and Australian governments have been unsuccessful thus far, he said the mock trial helped prove that there was legal substance to his long-running campaign.
Historians and politicians, however, have been split on whether the case should be reviewed at all.
Morant had been drafted by the British to help fight a guerrilla war against the Boers as part of the Bushveldt Carbineers, a story recounted in Kit Denton's novel and the 1980 movie detailing Breaker Morant's life.
Mr Unkles said the fault for ordering the Boer War prisoner deaths actually falls on Lord Kitchener, a revered figure in British history.
"It's a part of British military history they want to forget," he said.
He'll be writing to the attorneys-general in Australia and Britain to re-examine the case based on Saturday's non-binding trial decision.
If that doesn't work, he plans on taking the case to the British High Court.
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