Andrew L. Urban
It’s all very well to have a war crimes murder trial of Ben Roberts-Smith but given its track record, the legal system is not all that trustworthy to deliver justice. The many moving parts of the system include the investigators (AFP and OSI), the prosecutors, the judge and the jury. And this will be an extraordinarily challenging trial. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
Garry Nye attended his own wake; I was invited. My book-length story on his life and troubles was well advanced. It turned out to be my first wrongful conviction report. Not long after, I wrote his obituary for The Australian. He had been determined: “For what they did to me and my family I wanted to get the bastards back.” Just days after he hosted his own wake at a Rooty Hill pub (21/2/2004), Garry Nye passed away (1/3/2004, age 51) and was buried next to his mother’s grave at Rooty Hill on March 6, 2004 – her birthday. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
It was in the main street of Mintabie, 980 kms northwest of Adelaide, the remote opal mining community (now closed). It was 1978 and an Aboriginal man had been found dead, in mysterious circumstances. The Coroner sent a team to investigate. Refusing an offer of a cool room for the procedure, the State’s forensic pathologist set up a make shift morgue in the street and proceeded to perform his gut wrenching task. After Dr Colin Manock had removed the bodily organs from the chest, he used a ladle to scoop up some of the body fluids and quipped, ‘does anybody fancy a slurp?’ Continue reading
The conviction of Bradley John Murdoch for the murder of Peter Falconio has always sat uncomfortably with anyone who looks closely at the evidence or rather, the lack of it, writes STEVEN FENNELL. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
After a guilty verdict, the defendant is entitled to appeal. In the cases we regard as wrongful convictions, an appeal is an essential step toward correcting error at trial. When is the assumption of innocence negated? Continue reading
The appeal court in Bromley has fundamentally failed to pay due regard to the rule of law and to the well-established principles governing criminal appeals, according to Flinders University legal academics Dr Bob Moles and Bibi Sangha, as we first reported on July 2, 2018. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
Contrary to his apparent intention, Dr Simon Longstaff’s heartfelt and personal reflection laid out in his column (The Australian, May 5, 2026) reinforces the inappropriateness of the practice known as “welcome to country” in 21st century Australia. The element missing is context. (This article is published here given the high level of the public interest and debate on the matter.) Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
It starts today. Witnesses will be heard at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, starting with Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Ever since the release of the Terms of Reference, we have been concerned at how probing Commissioner Virgina Bell will be to examine how Labor’s actions generated the environment in which antisemitism flourished since October 7, 2023. Are we heading for a case of wrongful conviction, wrongfully blaming failures of the security services while ignoring the grave mistakes – commissions and omissions – of PM Albanese and Team? See our full submission to the Commission. Continue reading
STEVEN FENNELL explores both sides of the Nicola Gobbo debate, wrongful convictions and the fracture of Australian justice. Continue reading
Convicted of a 2012 double murder, Marco Rusterholz believes he is (like Sue Neill-Fraser), a victim of Tasmania’s discredited legal system. To avoid an apprehension of bias, we have sought an independent, structured, adversarial analysis of his case by LIA (Legal Intel AI); a stress test. Continue reading