But
Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton, Lord Eassie and Lord Reed dismissed his legal move in a quickfire hearing on Friday at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton said: "While the disease is incurable, he is not at present suffering material pain or disability."
Scotland's top judge, the
Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton, ruled the appeal against conviction must be refused.
Lord Cullen, the Scottish
Lord Justice General, said: "We have reached the conclusion that none of the grounds of appeal is well founded.
The centenary celebrations will see trumpeters announce the arrival on the North Court bench of The
Lord Justice General, The Rt Hon Lord Gill, The Lord Justice Clerk, The Rt Hon Lord Carloway.
In the written judgement, the
Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton said this evidence should have been brought to court much quicker.
But the
Lord Justice General, sitting with Lords Osborne and Kingarth, condemned the police's questioning of the killer in August 2003 as "hostile and outrageous".
And yesterday Scotland's top judge, the
Lord Justice General Lord Cullen, sitting with Lord Macfadyen and Lady Cosgrove, ruled that the conviction 'constituted a miscarriage of justice' because the small risk of DNA cross-contamination occurring during the testing was never put to the jury at the original trial.
And
Lord Justice General, Lord Gill, said they should not adjourn cases for work that should have been done before the trial started.
Lord Hamilton, the
Lord Justice General, who heard the appeal with Lords Osborne and Mackay, agreed.
The
Lord Justice General, Lord Hamilton, set the hearing for the second week of January.
Lord Cullen, the Scottish
Lord Justice General, said: 'We have reached the conclusion that none of the grounds of appeal is well founded.