In November 2020 the SA Court of Criminal Appeal rejected Peter Rex Dansie's argument that the original verdict, delivered by a judge alone, could not be supported on the evidence at his trial.
But the High Court on Friday granted his application for special leave to appeal the majority decision of the state appeal court.
In dismissing Dansie's appeal, Justices Mark Livesey and Greg Parker ruled it was open to the trial judge to find the murder charge proved beyond reasonable doubt.
However, in a dissenting view, Justice Kevin Nicholson would have quashed Dansie's conviction on the basis that it "would be dangerous in all the circumstances to allow the verdict of guilty of murder to stand".
"The drowning of an elderly, wheelchair-bound, woman in a pond is an extraordinary event, but extraordinary events do happen," he said.
"Nevertheless, I start with the proposition that, according to the ordinary experience of human affairs, it is highly unusual for a husband in his late 60s, having been married to his wife for more than 40 years and sole or primary carer for his wife over the previous 22 years or so, to murder her in this way or at all."
Dansie was jailed earlier in 2020 for murdering his 67-year-old wife Helen who drowned after her wheelchair fell into a pond in the Adelaide parklands on Easter Sunday, 2017.
Justice David Lovell imposed a life sentence with a 25-year non-parole period.
In his sentencing remarks, Justice Lovell said the 71-year-old was driven by selfish motives.
"Yours was an evil and despicable act," the judge said.
"Helen, your loving and devoted wife for over 40 years, had simply become a burden to you.
"This was a chilling, planned murder of a person whose mistake was to trust you."
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