Peter Ellis died in September. At the time he'd been fighting to clear his name, 26 years after he was convicted of sex offences against children at the Christchurch Civic Creche.
The Supreme Court are now considering whether there are special circumstances to continue the appeal, which normally would stop after death.
Justice Joe Williams has suggested that actually rather than looking at cases from other countries where appeals have continued after death - there could be an entirely new rule, based on tikanga Māori.
