Each day convicted killer Kathleen Folbigg spends in prison while the attorney-general waits for the results of an inquiry into her guilt is undermining the rule of law, advocates say.
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As pressure grows for Attorney-General Michael Daley to free Folbigg, her supporters say there is no reason to delay her release.
An inquiry in April into Folbigg's convictions for the deaths of her four children heard credible evidence they might have died of natural causes.
Tracy Chapman said it upset her that her lifelong friend was left to sit in prison while Mr Daley waited.
"It's not okay," she told reporters on Wednesday.
"I spoke to her last night and there's a restlessness in her because she knows what's about to happen and yet we're asking her to sit there and go on with her everyday incarcerated life as if nothing's happened."
The pardon power, which the governor can use on the advice of the attorney-general, was extraordinary, human rights barrister Felicity Graham said.
"But what is more extraordinary is to not exercise these powers when they obviously should be exercised," she said.
"It is glaringly obvious and has been glaringly obvious to the attorney since these submissions came out in early April."
The submissions to the inquiry included concession from the state's top prosecutor that there was reasonable doubt about Folbigg's convictions.
She has served 20 years of a 25-year minimum sentence after a jury in 2003 convicted her of killing her children Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura between 1989 and 1999.
The inquiry heard diary entries made by Folbigg as she dealt with her babies' deaths were used as admissions of guilt at trial, but that purported proof was undermined by new scientific evidence and other developments.
The "mountain of evidence" was all available to Mr Daley, allowing him to act ahead of the formal findings, Greens MP Sue Higginson said.
"It's not about what anyone believes. It's not about what anyone thinks. It's about what the evidence has presented," she said.
Newly elected Labor MP Stephen Lawrence told parliament the case of Lindy Chamberlain showed how crucial it was for the person with pardon or parole powers to stand ready to exercise them.
"It's relevant to note that (inquiry chair) Tom Bathurst himself in the inquiry, had cause to mention that these powers were independent of the powers that he exercises," Mr Lawrence, a veteran barrister, told the upper house late on Wednesday.
But Mr Daley stood by his decision to wait for the final report from Mr Bathurst, a former chief justice of the NSW Supreme Court.
A spokesman for the attorney-general said moving early "would not be prudent ... given the previous extensive judicial consideration, and the breadth of technical scientific and legal evidence being considered" in Folbigg's case.
That position was adopted by Labor, coalition and One Nation MPs in the upper house late on Wednesday.
The parties combined to amend a motion by Ms Higginson that called on the government to ensure Folbigg was released without delay.
Eight MPs from the Greens, Animal Justice and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers parties supported the unamended motion.
