Andrew L. Urban.
On the eve of tomorrow’s 60 Minutes (Nine Network) special report on the case of Sue Neill-Fraser, we take you back to her trial in the Supreme Court of Tasmania, for the murder of her partner Bob Chappell, alleged by the Director Public Prosecutions, Tim Ellis, to have taken place on board the couple’s recently purchased yacht, Four Winds. It’s the final day, October 15, 2010. Continue reading
Writing in Pearls and Irritations, renowned legal academics Stephen Cordner and Kerry Breen explain how Australia’s criminal appeals system remains deformed after useless tinkering. This is an extract from their paper that marked Wrongful Conviction Day (Oct.2) Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
“Shorty” Jamieson, who is just 150cm tall and who has foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, was convicted of murder on the supposedly verbatim confession detectives presented as evidence – a mechanically typed document that not even the fastest typists could now replicate on modern computers. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
Bruce Lehrmann is no longer under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission NACC for allegedly using secrets about French submarines for his own ends, reports the ABC. Continue reading
Prompted by our story about Giggle for Girls founder Sall Grover being judged to have giggled hurtfully at a cartoon depicting her legal opponent Roxanne Tickle (yeah, real names), STEVEN FENNELL discusses the issues when involuntary responses conflict with courtroom demands. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
It’s a joke, allright. And the Federal court is the butt of the joke. That was my thought as Sall Grover, to a standing ovation, received her Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Freedom & Hope Award on Saturday from past recipient Senator Jacinta Nampajimpa Price. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
In the news: in America, after 30 years in solitary, Christa Pike’s execution went horribly wrong when two lethal injections left her unconscious but alive. Nadil Hasan will face a military firing squad set for December 3. Now that Donald Trump has expressed reservations, it may or may not be live streamed – if that’s the right term. Both were convicted of horrible murders, the latter of 13 US servicemen. But is the death penalty just murder by the State*? Continue reading
His mum Sarah Ward was convicted of the 2008 murder of Eli Westlake – she is coming home soon and he looks forward to living what remains of his life with her (he has terminal bone cancer). “She’s changed she’s sorry and she’s served a lot of years to reflect on what she’s done,” he writes. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists killed, raped and tortured young Israelis in a massacre of some 1200 and took some 240 hostages into their tunnels in Gaza. On October 15, 1894, French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the youngest son of a Jewish family from Alsace-Lorraine, was arrested for treason – without any credible evidence. Dreyfus was convicted in a secret court martial and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island, the penal colony in French Guiana (which boasted a 75% death rate). Before his deportation, he was subjected to the public humiliation of being stripped of his rank – with a crowd of 20,000 watching and roaring as his sword was ceremonially broken and his uniform torn. Continue reading