Andrew L. Urban.
In a short, sharp announcement in the Banco Court by NSW Chief Justice Bathurst, Robert Xie’s appeal (on eight grounds) was rejected this morning (15/2/2021), dealing a devastating blow to Xie’s tearful wife Kathy Lin, seated opposite the bench, and of course to Robert himself, appearing via videolink.
The judgement will be published later, and indications are that it will be closely scrutinised by Xie’s legal team to determine if they will seek leave to appeal to the High Court. (A GoFundMe campaign has been suggested by a couple of supporters to help enable such an appeal.)
A large media contingent greeted Kathy Lin on leaving the Supreme Court but she made no comment, escorted by friends and supporters towards the St James train station on her way back home in Epping.
At the end of the fourth trial (with new defence team), on Thursday, February 13, 2017, Justice Fullerton sentenced Lian Bin (Robert) Xie to life imprisonment without parole for the brutal, savage murder of five members of his wife Kathy’s family, in their North Epping home on July 18, 2009. Hearing the sentence, Xie rose to his feet and called out: “I did not murder the Lin family, I am innocent.” His wife Kathy, weeping, echoed his claim of innocence and has never wavered in her support.
APPEAL GROUNDS SUMMARY
Ground 1: Error by Johnson J in admitting the evidence of Dr Perlin (at committal)
Ground 2: Error by Fullerton J in disallowing voir dire, and in admitting the evidence
Ground 3: Miscarriage of justice caused by the evidence of Dr Perlin
Ground 4: Error in warning regarding the ‘CSI Effect’
Ground 5: Miscarriage of justice from directions on consciousness of guilt
Ground 6: Miscarriage of justice from directions about alibi
Ground 7: Error in admission of coincidence evidence in massage device
Ground 8: Miscarriage of justice caused by conduct of counsel
OPINION:
Chief Justice of NSW Tom Bathurst QC along with Justices Hulme and Beech-Jones as the judges on the appeal, will not escape criticism for their joint error in rejecting Xie’s appeal.
There was no direct evidence that Robert Xie viciously murdered five members of his wife’s family in 2009, nor any credible circumstantial evidence. The Crown case was a construct of the prosecution. These experienced judges ought to have seen through that, given the eight grounds on which they could base granting the appeal.
In the absence of any durable evidence that pointed to Robert Xie, the prosecution made much of a DNA sample (‘stain 91’) taken from the Xie family home garage floor – 300 metres from the crime scene. The forensic evidence about the DNA – the prosecution’s ‘smoking gun’ – is profoundly unreliable.
The problematic, nay, irrelevant, DNA ‘evidence’, taken together with Xie’s unshaken alibi (in bed with his wife) should have required the jury, acting rationally, to have entertained a reasonable doubt as to Xie’s guilt, and should have also alerted the appeal judges that the conviction was unsafe when considering grounds 1 – 3.
COMING SOON:
In addition to our earlier reports (here and here) about the grave errors in the prosecution’s case, we will soon publish a report that further undermines the safety of this conviction.
Oh my goodness! Impressive article
dude! Many thanks, However I am experiencing difficulties
with your RSS. I don’t understand why I cannot subscribe
to it. Is there anyone else getting
identical RSS problems?
Anyone who knows the answer can you kindly respond?
Thanks!!
No RSS feed available… Suggest you just enter your email address in the field provided. Thanks for your interest.
I use the RSS feed for here via Feedly — works perfectly for both posts and comments. :)
Apologies, I should’ve included the links: https://wrongfulconvictionsreport.org/feed/ and https://wrongfulconvictionsreport.org/comments/feed/
Thank you…just shows how technically adept I am!
Pell in the HC of A reestablished the principals of reasonable doubt. Lets hope the same principals are applied to the Xie appeal to the HC of A.
I fail to understand, “where beyond all reasonable doubt,” fits in.
I thought the justice system is designed that; it is better to let a guilty person walk free, than convict and lock up an innocent person.
Perhaps I watched a Hollywood movie.
But in any case. Enough is enough. They want to rule with all the jargon, it is time the Justice Australia all over had a reality check.
I am no longer shy and introverted. They all know who I am for blowing the whistle on Tasmania and Chief Justice Blow for sentencing a female university student from Singapore to prison for stealing books, while drug dealers and violent crims walk. That upset my goat.
I also blew an unrepresented appeal in the supreme court of Tasmania by saying; this is just a farce and the judge wiped me out. This is because the prosecutor had a stack of books and started quoting past cases I was locked up for 7 months in maximum for playing guitar in a public place.
The best thing I can suggest for bentness is large fines, nothing like hip pocket nerves to stop this!
I say no comment.
I am better off saying nothing.
Except ” it ain’t over ’till its over”.
Australia will not tolerate this type of injustice anymore.
So I said something.
And “they say, what you gonna do boy?”
And I say “you find out,”
Democracy is more powerful than injustice in society.
Ladedaadeda.
What a mission being thrown at us to unite as Sons and Daughters of ANZACS to realise the Freedom of the deceased War Victims defending Australia and the Free World. NAZISM is taking over; FASCISM in Australia.
It starts in Tasmania.
Sorry to Robert Xie and Family.
I was shocked to read the news today and my heart breaks for Kathy and Xie. They must be numb with this devastating news. The Appeal court system is designed to ensure the decision from the Supreme Court is upheld and by doing so, “show” the public the system works well and so have confidence with it, until they have the misfortune of being in it. Also, the way it’s funded through legal aid (very low fees) shows how unattractive it is for legals to even look at supporting an Appeal for those seeking to overturn a miscarriage of justice. Scott Austic, lost his Appeal for his conviction of murder. He then had to find recourse through a new Attorney General to allow leave for Appeal. The previous AG Michael Mischin would not support his petition. Now given Scott was acquitted should not Michael Mischin be reprimanded or fined or shamed for his abuse of power not to allow an Appeal given the fresh evidence that came to light, police corruption/planting evidence? The whole system is rotten.
My initial reaction, without reading details, is I feel distressed. Seems an inadequate -even deplorable, outcome