Robert Xie – autopsies & a secret phone question the verdict

Posted on February 17, 2021 by andrew

Our wrongfulconvictionsreport ‘sleuths’ have helped investigate this case in the past (see here and here). PHILLIP CHAPMAN, DR ROLAND ZHANG and DR PETER YOUNG are helping us again, with references to evidence from the autopsies and a secret phone.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 11 Robert Xie | 4 Comments

Robert Xie appeal refused

Posted on February 15, 2021 by andrew

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.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 11 Robert Xie | 11 Comments

Sue Neill-Fraser supreme court appeal – evidence Fact Sheet letterbox drop

Posted on February 14, 2021 by andrew

Some 20,000 Fact Sheets (see below) about the Sue Neill-Fraser case will be distributed to letter boxes around Hobart ahead of her latest appeal that begins on March 1, 2021, in Hobart Supreme Court, as a community service on behalf of wrongfulconvictionsreport.org Continue reading →

Posted in Case 01 Sue Neill-Fraser | 20 Comments

Sue Neill-Fraser appeal to start soon – but will it end the nightmare?

Posted on January 24, 2021 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

 Sue Neill-Fraser, 65, has never hugged her grandchildren outside prison. She was arrested# on August 20, 2009, charged with murdering her partner Bob Chappell on Australia Day 2009. We hereby mark the bleak 12th anniversary. She has always maintained her innocence (as have many supporters and several lawyers) but her nightmare has continued, as the Tasmanian legal system failed her every step of the way.* Her final appeal against her conviction is scheduled to begin shortly (March 1, 2021) but is it just a matter of ‘going through the motions’ with only local judges on the bench (contrary to accepted practice)? Continue reading →

Posted in Case 01 Sue Neill-Fraser | 29 Comments

Eddie Howard – another murder conviction bites the dust

Posted on January 17, 2021 by andrew

A Black man who spent 26 years in prison on charges of raping and killing an 84-year-old white woman from Mississippi, was exonerated on January 18, 2021, after new evidence and the dismissal of bite mark evidence that was the key to his conviction. Continue reading →

Posted in Case 16 Eddie Howard | 1 Comment

When ‘she said’ removes safeguards of the law

Posted on January 10, 2021 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

It is not the first time that police have recklessly charged and detained an innocent man on child sex abuse related charges, just on the say-so of an accuser. Evidence would be a good start … (Most recently we reported on the case of John Fleming – and Cardinal Pell) This case highlights the urgent need for reforming the current process that effectively denies the accused any safeguards, with terrible consequences for them – and a waste of public resources. (In February 2019 we reported on Daniel Jones, and in September 2020 on the Cook family’s extraordinary ordeal. And let’s not forget ‘Paul’…) Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 8 Comments

Something rotten with Australian justice

Posted on January 3, 2021 by andrew

Recent events in Australia give little cause for optimism that we have either a clean, efficient and effective criminal justice system or an incorruptible and just policing regime, writes DR AUGUSTO ZIMMERMAN in Quadrant (3/1/21), as he deconstructs the appalling travesty of the John Fleming case in South Australia. And sees “something rotten with Australian justice more broadly”.  Continue reading →

Posted in Case 15 John Fleming | 5 Comments

The dingo took over my life – book review

Posted on January 2, 2021 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

Journalist Malcolm Brown managed to irritate both sides: the Northern Territory Police (and Government) as well as Stuart Tipple, the lawyer for Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, which makes the two men ideal co-authors of Tipple’s journey through the history-making case of 9-week old Azaria Chamberlain’s 1980 disappearance at Ayers Rock (Uluru) and Lindy Chamberlain’s wrongful conviction of her murder.  Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 5 Comments

A year of blunders – 2020 in review

Posted on December 20, 2020 by andrew

Tunnel-vision-blighted police investigations, junk science as evidence, prosecutors ‘impermissibly straining for a conviction’ (as Justice Fullerton has put it) and judges failing to adhere to the rule of law are all causes of blunders resulting in wrongful convictions and failed appeals. We reported on several of such blunders during the year; here is our Year in Review.  Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

New Year hopes for old injustices

Posted on December 17, 2020 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban.

Should we call them mis-convicted murderers, perhaps, those poor unfortunate souls who have suffered the catastrophe of a wrongful conviction? As we prepare to leave 2020 behind and look across time into 2021, we must hope along with them that the criminal justice system will correct those wrongful convictions, in many cases far too long after the verdict was delivered.  Continue reading →

Posted in General articles | 8 Comments