Andrew L. Urban.
In just 60 Minutes last Sunday (6/9/20), Channel 9 has shown how the Cooks, a circus family from the Blue Mountains, were persecuted by a preposterous police prosecution of a case that not only lacked evidence of any kind, but defied the most basic tests of common sense. Sadly, it is not the only humiliating failure of the criminal justice system in Australia. Continue reading
In the 2010 trial of Sue Neill-Fraser, there was an absence of evidentiary proof for establishing the Major Premise of the crime – an essential fact for a valid inference of guilt, writes BENJAMIN DEAN,* in this 3-part analysis of the case applying formal logic#. Part 3 – ‘strands in the cable’ not logical Continue reading
In the 2010 trial of Sue Neill-Fraser, there was an absence of evidentiary proof for establishing the Major Premise of the crime – an essential fact for a valid inference of guilt, writes BENJAMIN DEAN,* in this 3-part analysis of the case applying formal logic#. Part 2 – accused not at crime scene Continue reading
In the 2010 trial of Sue Neill-Fraser, there was an absence of evidentiary proof for establishing the Major Premise of the crime – an essential fact for a valid inference of guilt, writes BENJAMIN DEAN,* in this 3-part analysis of the case applying formal logic#. Part 1- no proof of death Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
One of the “much loved and respected” inmates of Hobart’s Risdon women’s prison, Sue Neill-Fraser, has had to keep deferring her hope of regaining her freedom after 11 years incarceration; she is collateral damage of the Covid19 driven interstate travel restrictions. Continue reading
Marking the 40th anniversary of the night Lindy Chamberlain’s baby Azaria was taken by a dingo from the family tent at Uluru (August 17, 1980) sparking Australia’s best known miscarriage of justice, leading forensic pathologist Professor Stephen Cordner is quoted in John Silvester’s Naked City column (The Age, August 22, 2020) calling for a Criminal Cases Review Commission. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
The police investigation that led to Neill-Fraser’s arrest was irredeemably flawed, as we reported in Part 1 and it led to a train wreck of a trial that mocks the integrity of the criminal justice system. There is a remedy even now, says a legal academic: “the prosecution should concede that appealable error has occurred and make a joint request with defence counsel that the conviction be set aside … as has been done (before and) in many cases in the UK”. Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban.
August 2009 was unusually wet, windy and warm for Tasmania – and wrongful conviction was in the air. Sue Neill-Fraser’s arrest on Thursday, August 20, 2009 – exactly 11 years ago today – for the murder of her partner Bob Chappell earlier that year, set off a chain reaction towards a miscarriage of justice that is often compared to the infamous, egregious wrongful conviction of Lindy Chamberlain in October 1982 (quashed in 1988) of murdering her baby, Azaria, in August 1980. # Continue reading
Andrew L. Urban
Integrity goes to character. Does Kamala Harris pass the test? This is a key question now she is the Vice Presidential candidate on Joe Biden’s Presidential ticket, but in her previous life, she was San Francisco’s District Attorney (2004-2011), and then California’s Attorney General (2011-2017). Was she always a friend of justice? Is her integrity beyond reproach? Continue reading
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 to report on these as encouragement to other officers of the courts to do the Honourable thing and acknowledge their mistakes (or worse, their malpractices). Continue reading