Category Archives: General articles

Articles relevant to the subject of wrongful convictions

Sorry – for 27 years in jail

Posted on August 7, 2020 by andrew

A Chinese court has apologised to Yuhuan Zhang for his wrongful conviction, after he spent 27 years in jail. The news comes just days after our two-part series on US and Australian prosecutors and judges making similar apologies. We like … Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 3 Comments

The Honourable List – in Australia

Posted on July 31, 2020 by andrew

Previously, we held up as examples some prosecutors and judges who had Honourably taken responsibility and apologised for mistakes and malpractice causing some innocents to suffer wrongful convictions. They were (almost) all in America; we couldn’t find any examples in … Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 4 Comments

The Honourable List – a start

Posted on July 30, 2020 by andrew

Doing the honourable thing by accepting responsibility for mistakes within the criminal justice system stands out as a novelty, it sometimes seems to us. So we want to recognise some of those who have done the honourable thing, apologising for … Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 8 Comments

How to fix Australia’s biggest legal scandal

Posted on July 29, 2020 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban. It could be the start of a black joke: ‘have you heard the one about the chief forensic pathologist of a modern Australian state who was not qualified to do his job, was discredited by the legal … Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 9 Comments

Innocence Files reveals the really guilty

Posted on July 26, 2020 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban. Justice at the hands of ‘The System’ is sometimes no justice at all, it seems, as the new 9-part series The Innocence Files (Netflix) reveals how police break the rules, forensic experts use junk science, prosecutors withhold … Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 9 Comments

Expert Witness 101 – inform, not advocate

Posted on July 24, 2020 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban. Eve Ash, the Melbourne filmmaker whose documentary, Shadow of Doubt, opened a Pandora’s Box on the Sue Neill-Fraser (many say wrongful) murder conviction, has produced a 4-part eLearning course, Giving Expert Evidence, which has now (July 23, … Continue reading →

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Victoria’s Court of Appeal – too many judgements overturned, bring on a CCRC

Posted on July 23, 2020 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban. Over the past 14 years under Justice Chris Maxwell’s reign as its president, 18 of the judgements of Victoria’s Court of Appeal have been overturned by the High Court, while in the previous decade, 10 of its … Continue reading →

Posted in CCRC, General articles | 7 Comments

Secret strategies – how they secure murder convictions without evidence

Posted on July 5, 2020 by andrew

In his book, Murder by the Prosecution (Wilkinson Publishing) ANDREW L. URBAN reports on murder trials that relied exclusively on circumstantial evidence and how these resulted in convictions – since overturned or under appeal. Through exploring these cases he came … Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 23 Comments

A cancerous phenomenon

Posted on June 13, 2020 by andrew

One of Australia’s most respected former detectives, COLIN McLAREN, has broken rank from police circles, to speak out against a judicial system he no longer believes in. Indeed, he suffered threats of arrest because he dared to find glaring faults … Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 41 Comments

Another CCRC established … but still not in Australia

Posted on May 24, 2020 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban. A new, independent body that will have the power to send potential miscarriages of justice back to an appeal court is on track to begin receiving applications from July 1, 2020 – but not in Australia. It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in CCRC, General articles | 19 Comments