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PHOENIX — Trying to help a hiker who was sentenced to prison for a fatal shooting, the Arizona Legislature completed action Monday on a bill to explicitly make a 2006 self-defense law apply retroactively to his case and an unknown number of others.

The 2006 law shifted the burden of proof in cases when people charged with a crime are claiming self-defense.

The new law says prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a self-defense claim was unfounded. The old law made defendants prove that they acted to protect themselves.

Supporters hoped the law would be included in instructions given weeks later to jurors in the trial of Harold Arthur Fish, a retired teacher convicted of second-degree murder in the 2004 shooting death of Grant Kuenzil during a confrontation on a trail near Payson. Fish had claimed self-defense, saying that Kuenzil charged him in a threatening manner after Fish shot a dog that he considered a threat.

A Coconino County Superior Court judge denied a request by Fish to apply the new self-defense law retroactively to his case, and the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 9 that the law didn't apply retroactively to cases involving offenses committed before the law took effect on April 24, 2006.

The 2006 law was prompted by Fish's case, but the Supreme Court ruling came in the case of David Garcia, who is charged in Tucson with murder in the 2004 shooting death of Alexis Samaniego. Garcia awaits trial in Pima County Superior Court.

The current bill to make the 2006 change apply retroactively was approved 29-0 by the Senate on Feb. 20 and 42-17 by the House on Monday. With the House's action, the bill could go to Gov. Janet Napolitano as early as today. It will take effect immediately if she signs it.

The sponsor of the new bill, Republican Sen. Linda Gray of Glendale, said it and the 2006 law were both intended to help Fish and that it was supporters' intent all along to have the 2006 change apply to cases pending at the time.

"All this does is say that they give a new trial, or that's how it should be applied, that court rules were not appropriately applied as the Legislature intended, and this would allow for a new trial," Gray said.

The retroactivity bill was supported by groups representing gun owners and criminal defense attorneys and opposed by a group representing prosecutors.

The Arizona Prosecuting Attorney Advisory Council said making the change retroactive could affect numerous cases and that the impact of the bill was greater than the goal of the current legislation.

Rep. Steve Gallardo, a Phoenix Democrat who voted against the bill, said it would lead to costly retrials and re-victimize victims by forcing them to testify again in court. "It will open old wounds," he said.

Fish, now 59, began serving a 10-year prison sentence last August.