David Eastman has vowed he will continue to fight his murder charge after his latest failed bid to avoid a retrial for the shooting death of police chief Colin Winchester.
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He is now likely to face a jury for the second time over the alleged murder in a six-month ACT Supreme Court trial planned for mid-next year.
Eastman's murder conviction was quashed and he walked free in 2014 after nearly 19 years behind bars for the alleged killing of Mr Winchester, a senior AFP officer, in Canberra in 1989.
Prosecutors later pushed for Eastman to face a retrial, prompting him to launch a bid to permanently stave off facing a second jury over the killing.
Acting Justice David Ashley in April threw out Eastman's application for a permanent stay of proceedings, but kept secret his reasons for doing so, saying he didn't want to jeopardise the fairness of the retrial.
Eastman's lawyers challenged the court's decision to dismiss that application in the ACT Court of Appeal.
Victorian Supreme Court judges Justice Robert Osborn, Justice Simon Whelan and Justice Phillip Priest travelled to Canberra to hear the matter in October.
Eastman's barrister Patrick Tehan, QC, argued there was an apprehension of bias in Justice Ashley's decision.
That referred to the legal principle that a reasonable onlooker might conclude the judge may not have been impartial in making his decision, and his judgment could give the appearance of bias.
"As experienced as a judge may be, and Justice Ashley is a very experienced judge, even a judge of such experience, at the end of the day, may be found to have apprehended bias," Mr Tehan said.
But the Crown's counsel Murugan Thangaraj, SC, had argued Justice Ashley had simply been trying to "move the matter forward" and attributed certain comments made in his reasons to personality.
Justice Ashley's full reasons for his decision remained suppressed and the court was closed to members of the public for much of the hearing.
On Friday, judges Osborn and Whelan rejected Eastman's application, saying they had not been persuaded there was an apprehension of bias in Acting Justice Ashley's decision.
The judges said the full reasons for their decision would not be made public.
Speaking outside court, Legal Aid ACT chief executive John Boersig said Mr Eastman was "of course, very disappointed at the unsuccessful outcome of this appeal".
"He asked me to say that he strongly affirms his innocence and that he will continue to fight the allegations against him.
"He will also seek advice in relation to this matter and to see what course of action's available to him."
Mr Eastman had also made a plea for privacy, Dr Boersig said.
ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner John Hinchey said outside court Mr Winchester's family remained keen for the matter to be resolved.
"We would welcome that decision, I know the Winchester family do, and we acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of the AFP and the DPP to ensure justice."
Eastman was sentenced to life behind bars when he was convicted of murder in 1995.
He was eventually freed in August 2014 following an inquiry that exposed significant flaws with the forensic evidence used to link him to the scene of the killing.
Meanwhile, preparations for a potential retrial have continued in the Supreme Court.
The case has been tentatively set down to start in July next year.
Former Victorian Supreme Court judge Murray Kellam, QC, has been appointed to oversee the trial.
The ACT government set aside more than $3.3 million for Mr Eastman's potential retrial in the budget for the Director of Public Prosecutions and ACT's court system, as well as $1.7 million for Legal Aid, in the coming year.
