Doug Stewart appeal decision in August

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Doug Stewart is hoping for another day in court.

The Michigan Court of Appeals will decide in August whether the convicted murderer should get to appeal his conviction.

Stewart's estranged wife, Venus, disappeared from her parents' Colon Township home in April 2010. A St. Joseph County jury in March 2011 convicted Stewart for murdering her. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Venus' body has never been found, although her family continues to look for those remains to this day.

In court documents filed earlier this year, Stewart's attorney wrote his client should get a new trial for five separate reasons.

The appeal alleges a witness was allowed to testify as an expert, and shouldn't have been able to. It goes on to say the judge and prosecutors had a private conversation during the trial. That issue was ruled on during the original trial, and it was decided that the judge and prosecutor didn't do anything wrong.

It goes on to say the judge should have declared a mistrial when the star witness in the case, Doug Stewart's convicted accomplice Ricky Spencer, gave inflammatory testimony about Stewart. The attorney general wrote back -- saying Spencer was allowed to testify about what happened because it was part of the conspiracy.

The defense also writes that the prosecutor "vouched" for the lead investigator in the case to the jury, and that the judge gave jurors bad instructions that "vouched for the prosecutors' view of the evidence."

The Attorney General's office contests each of those claims. Its brief said Stewart was convicted of murdering his wife because he was guilty -- and for no other reason.