The five-judge bench of the High Court today announced its unanimous decision to allow an appeal by Queensland prosecutors.

The state’s Director of Public Prosecutions had launched the bid after a shock decision by Queensland’s Court of Appeal last December to downgrade Baden-Clay’s murder conviction to manslaughter. The decision prompted a public outcry.

The High Court found the Court of Appeal erred when it found a jury’s verdict of guilty of murder was unreasonable because the prosecution hadn’t excluded the hypothesis Baden-Clay unintentionally killed his wife.

The High Court found the jury was entitled to consider the whole of the evidence to satisfy itself he’d intended to kill or inflict grievous bodily harm on Allison.

It ordered the one-time real estate agent’s original conviction of murder be reinstated.

The decision comes just over a month after arguments for and against the downgrading of his murder conviction were heard in Brisbane, including submissions by the Crown that Baden-Clay’s conduct after his wife’s death was “not only calculated but cold-blooded”.

Allison’s body was found on a creek bank in April 2012, 10 days after her husband reported her missing from their Brisbane home.

Baden-Clay was charged with her murder about two months later.

Alison Baden-Clay’s family say they are relieved the murder conviction has been reinstated.

“Today’s decision in the High Court comes with relief and elation,” family friend Kerry Anne Walker said in a prepared statement read outside the court.

“Despite many Queenslanders being labelled as ignorant when they protested the downgrade to manslaughter, the common sense of the original jury has prevailed and justice for Allison has finally been realised.”

Walker said the decision reflected what the family already knew: that Gerard Baden-Clay murdered his wife.

“In a fair and open trial, a jury found that there was enough evidence to convict Gerard Baden-Clay of murder. They felt there was motive and certainly intent.

“Thankfully, today Australia’s High Court judges agree with this decision and have reinstated the conviction of murder.”

Walker paid tribute to prosecutors and Queensland police and others who helped with the case.

She said Allison would continue to live on through her three daughters.

“Allison loved being a wife and a mother and worked incredibly hard to do both to the best of her ability. Even though it has been said many times before, she was indeed an amazing woman.”

“Her legacy will be her three beautiful girls who, surrounded by their memories of Allison, and the love and support of Allison’s devoted family, are thriving in their busy lives.”

Queensland Law Society President Bill Potts said the case showed Australia’s justice system works.

“That this is a decision which demonstrates that the rule of law, the ultimate decision by a jury and by the justice system is something which should be respected,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

But he shied away from criticism of the Court of Appeal.

“This is not a competition between good or bad or right or wrong. It is not a matter of the Court of Appeal doing something which flies in the face of justice or logic,” he said.

“The best of all possible minds can disagree about fundamental things and that is so in the justice.”

-AAP