12:00am Saturday 1st January 2000
The family of Derek Bentley, the 19-year-old hanged in 1952 following the murder of a policeman in Croydon, came closer to clearing his name as the case reached the Court of Appeal this week.
Bentley's niece Maria Ding-wall-Bentley says she is "quietly confident" his conviction can finally be quashed.
Last November the Criminal Case Review Commission agreed to refer the Bentley case to the Court of Appeal.
Miss Dingwall-Bentley said: "This case is so important to us personally but also because it is the first case in this country's legal history that has ever stood up against the legal system."
The appeal is being headed by Lord Chief Justice Bingham and two as yet unnamed judges.
"By finally saying Derek didn't shoot the policeman it will end 46 years of campaigning by our family," she added.
Miss Dingwall-Bentley, who has been involved in the fight to clear her uncle's name since she was a child, took over the reigns of the case 18 months ago following the death of her mother Iris who dedicated her life to campaigning for a posthumous pardon.
Derek Bentley was hanged at Wandsworth Prison for his part in the shooting of PC Sid Miles on the roof of Barlow and Parker, a wholesale confectioner in Tamworth Road, Croydon. He was convicted after allegations that he incited Christopher Craig, then 16, to fire the shot. Mr Craig, who was too young to be hanged, is one of the key witnesses at this week's hearing.
"We are quietly confident but I cannot describe how tense I am,'' added Miss Dingwall-Bentley. "This is the moment we've been waiting for.''
During the hearing, which started on Monday, the court will examine documents and papers and call expert witnesses to testify from both sides.
The case is expected to last a week.
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