Wrongful Convictions Report

“In Australia, two of the states and both mainland territories have not yet even decided to permit a second criminal appeal by leave on compelling evidence. And no jurisdiction has yet resolved to establish a Review Commission. What is it about our country that always sees us limping behind [UK, NZ and Canada] where justice is at stake, whereas we can move with astonishing speed to diminish civil liberties, increase official powers and raise levels of incarceration, with no parliamentarian raising a murmur,” writes The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG* in Criminal Law Journal, discussing right of appeal provisions.  Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

Before Walkley Award winning journalist and legal historian Evan Whitton died (5 March 1928 – 16 July 2018), I had the good fortune to exchange a few notes with him about miscarriages of justice. He had written the acerbic book, Our Corrupt Legal System, whose title reflects his views about it. So we ask, How would we design a better, fairer legal system?  Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

As 2020 begins, we look forward to Tasmania’s Supreme Court finally hearing Sue Neill-Fraser’s new appeal against her 2010 murder conviction in May. Also during the year, the NSW the Supreme Court is expected to hear Robert Xie’s appeal against his 2017 multiple murder conviction. In Part 1 of this series we examine these two cases where tunnel vision was a key element in securing unsafe convictions. Continue reading →

After a trial conducted behind closed doors, a criminal court in Riyadh on Monday (23/12/19) sentenced five ­people to death for the murder in Istanbul of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018; three others were sentenced to a total of 24 years. Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cen­giz (pictured) has condemned the process and wants the world to demand full transparency as to who ordered the murder. Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

A man accused of rape has evidence of 12 incidents in which his alleged victim had made previous false claims about sexual abuse – but the court cannot allow that evidence to be heard, due to the catch-all nature of section 293 of the Criminal Procedure Act. The judge is calling for the section to be amended.  Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

They have come to be known as The Baby Deaths. Three unrelated babies who died between October 1992 and August 1993 in Adelaide, were each victims of physical abuse but the State’s Chief Pathologist (1968 – 1995), the insufficiently qualified Dr Colin Manock, reported the cause of death in each case as natural: bronchopneumonia. It was the start of a 20 year chain reaction that began with a wrongful conviction which should have never happened. Continue reading →