New York takes the wrongful conviction cake

Posted on February 4, 2024 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

Bypassing the police with her rape allegation, the complainant publishes it in a book, some 37 years later. But it may have been 36 years …The case goes to trial in a civil court.  Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 4 Comments

Mark Tedeschi KC “impermissibly straining for a conviction”

Posted on February 1, 2024 by andrew

To date, we have published 37 negative comments from readers on this blog about the former NSW Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi KC, adding to our own criticisms of his prosecutorial behaviour in several cases. Tedeschi finally resigned in 2018 and is no longer a senior Crown prosecutor. He was a high profile prosecutor, famed for his high conviction rate – but Justice Fullerton once admonished him for “impermissibly straining for a conviction”. The following is a snapshot of Mark Tedeschi’s track record, compiled by an interested and well informed reader and edited by Andrew L. Urban.  Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 10 Comments

CCRC – how NOT to do it

Posted on January 31, 2024 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

 The worst possible failure of a Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is to TWICE refuse to review a case on the request of the accused before DNA proves the accused was wrongfully convicted in the first place – 17 years earlier. And to repeat the refusals with another convicted applicant. (Mis)managing forensic information is at the heart of the failures. Should the CCRC UK sack its boss?  Continue reading →

Posted in CCRC | 3 Comments

Remember Robert Xie, another murder by the prosecution

Posted on January 28, 2024 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

ANNIVERSARY OF SHAME: On February 4, 2015, nine years ago this weekend, the third trial began of Robert Xie for the brutal murder of five members of his wife’s family. Eleven months later, it became the longest criminal trial in NSW history involving a single ­accused, with more than 160 days of ‘evidence’ and at least $1 million of taxpayers’ money spent on running the case. It ended on December 2, 2015, with a hung jury. By then, Xie had spent four years and seven months in jail without a conviction.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 11 Robert Xie | 18 Comments

The myth of criminal justice in Australia

Posted on January 26, 2024 by andrew

Marco Rusterholz is serving a 45 year jail sentence in Tasmania for a double murder, a conviction that is demonstrably unsafe. The trial judge, the jury and the appeal judges all failed in their respective duties to deliver justice.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 19 Marco Rusterholz, General articles | 5 Comments

Child sex offenders in SA face indefinite detention

Posted on January 23, 2024 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

Repeat child sex offenders would be subject to indefinite detention and potentially lifetime electronic monitoring under new laws that will be fast-tracked through South Australian state Parliament. Premier Peter Malinauskas described his government’s proposed amendments to the Sentencing Act 2017 as “the most draconian laws of their type anywhere in the country”.  Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 4 Comments

Wanted: Attorneys-General to help right wrongful convictions

Posted on January 20, 2024 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

If you could do one thing as an Attorney-General that would profoundly improve the criminal appeal system and reinforce the separation of powers … why not do it? Why haven’t they done it? Will they do it? Continue reading →

Posted in CCRC, General articles | 14 Comments

Convicted for Cash – false sexual abuse claims as cash cow

Posted on January 15, 2024 by andrew

Speaking on camera from his New Hampshire prison, Fr Gordon MacRae details how unscrupulous claimants and lawyers can swindle the system out of hefty cash payouts with false claims of sexual abuse. He should know: it happened to him. That’s in America, but not ONLY in America … Readers can make their own deductions and assessments.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 24 Fr Gordon MacRae | 3 Comments

Say-so evidence of sexual assault against Greenaway underpins crimen exceptum

Posted on January 14, 2024 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

 Noel Greenaway, a model citizen of impeccable character in his late 70s, is convicted of 18 nasty sexual and physical abuse offences alleged to have occurred in the 1960s – half a century in the past – simply on the say-so of five middle aged women who were then juvenile delinquent inmates at an institution….who complained simultaneously but had never before mentioned any of it to anyone.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 22 Noel Greenaway | 3 Comments

Week of Pell’s ‘resurrection’

Posted on January 12, 2024 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban

Within the space of a couple of days this week, several voices were heard in the public square ‘resurrecting’ the late Cardinal Pell, dismissing the notion that he was guilty of sexual abuse, a notion that some maintained even after the High Court’s 7-0 decision to quash that conviction.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 07 George Pell | 13 Comments