BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- A Brevard County man, convicted of murder more than two decades ago, will get a hearing next week on whether he should be set free. William Dillon has been fighting to have his conviction overturned for years and now new DNA evidence and other information have given Dillon a new day in court.

Dillon's defense attorney had been considering delaying the hearing until next year. The attorney said last week they wanted to consider more DNA tests before they went forward. Wednesday morning in court, they said they were ready and Dillon wants to proceed.

Dillon was back in Brevard County Wednesday, more than two decades after a court sent him to state prison for the rest of his life. His defense attorney says they have enough evidence to either warrant his release or a new trial.

The defense attorneys plan to put on evidence that new DNA tests couldn't tie Dillon to a t-shirt used to convict him in the 1981 murder of James Dvorak on Canova Beach and that a K-9 tracker also used in the trial has been disproven in other cases.

"If the U.S. government says he's a fraud, but the Brevard County state attorney says he's okay?" defense attorney Mike Pirolo questioned.

Prosecutors contend the DNA tests don't show Dillon wasn't the murderer and there is no other new evidence that warrants a new trial or his release.

"Other than the DNA evidence, there is nothing that falls under newly discovered evidence and the defendant will not be able to meet the burden of proof," said assistant state attorney Wayne Holmes.

But all that will be decided now when the hearing starts next week, which gives hopes to Dillon's family.

"He's seeing a little bit of light at the end of this tunnel and it's getting brighter and brighter every single day," said Joe Dillon, William's brother.

The hearing will begin next Tuesday. Until then, Dillon remains locked up at the Brevard County jail.