Petrick filed his request in December, a month after the state Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that he had received a fair trial.

Petrick was convicted in 2005 of strangling Janine Sutphen, a cellist who performed with the Durham Symphony, then dumping her body in a lake.

He chose to defend himself against a first-degree murder charge in a trial that drew national attention.

He is now represented by Mark Montgomery, a Durham lawyer.

Montgomery contends that a piece of evidence used against Petrick -- a dog handler's testimony -- is unreliable and should never have been admitted.

At trial, the dog handler testified that a cadaver dog picked up the scent of a dead body in Petrick's car trunk and home.

Montgomery argued before the appeals court that the dog handler's testimony was inappropriate and prejudicial.

But an assistant attorney general said prosecutors had enough circumstantial evidence against Petrick to support the dog handler's testimony.

The three appellate judges who upheld Petrick's conviction in November said Petrick did not object to the dog handler's testimony and can't raise the argument in appeals.

During the arguments to the N.C. Court of Appeals, an assistant attorney general also summarized other evidence against Petrick, including other computer records and a history of abuse of Sutphen.

Petrick's attorney said Monday that the court could make its decision by the end of the month.