Wrongful Convictions Report

He had an alibi. Why was he charged, tried and convicted? Robert Xie and his wife Kathy have always maintained he was in their bed beside her at the relevant time on the night of the Lin family murders, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2017. As the three learned judges retired last week to consider his appeal against the five murder convictions, they will come face to face with the single most crucial aspect of the case: Xie’s alibi – which the Crown has not disproved beyond reasonable doubt. Phillip Chapman’s July 3, 2020 comment on this is published here (with a background briefing) to bring it to greater prominence for our readers. Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

As his appeal hearings draw to a close this week, Robert Xie’s fate lies in the hands of the judges. But how the legal system (mis)treated him over several years is also deserving of scrutiny. Convicted in 2017 of the five brutal murders of his wife’s family in July 2009, Xie has always maintained his innocence, and the case against him was circumstantial – and “not overwhelming” even in the words of the prosecutor.  Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

“I am innocent,” Robert Xie called out in court before being led away to a lifetime in jail for the brutal and bloody murder of five of his wife’s family, with whom he had dinner the night before their deaths. He and his wife Kathy Lin both maintain he was framed – framed by a system they say unfairly pursued and prosecuted him. Written submissions of the grounds of appeal cast some light on why he might think that … here are just two extracts. Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

Robert Xie’s barrister, Belinda Rigg SC, continued on Day 2 of the hearing to pull apart the expert evidence around the DNA, arguing to the appeal court that the uncertainty of forensic testing outcomes were never properly and clearly put to the jury. The evidence presented had “the capacity to mislead the jury”.  Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

 Two large screens facing the court room show a diminutive Robert Xie, seated at a desk, dressed in black and holding a black pen, linked in from the Lithgow Correctional Facility, where he is serving a life sentence. He was convicted in January 2017 of brutally murdering five members of his wife’s family, including two young boys, back in 2009. His appeal has begun in the grand theatre of NSW Supreme Court’s Banco Court, with its tiered seating, elevated judges’ bench, paintings of red robed Supreme Court justices hung high on the walls, the sombre clerks of the court and three bewigged and red robed judges in the flesh.  Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban.

Chief Justice of NSW Tom Bathurst QC will be one of the judges (along with Justices Hulme and Beech-Jones) to hear the appeal by Lian Bin (Robert) Xie against his five 2017 murder convictions, starting on Monday, June 22, 2020, in the spacious Banco Court of the Law Courts Building in Queens Square, Sydney. The convictions, we believe, are collectively unsafe; see below. Whatever the outcome of the appeal, it is destined to be a historic legal milestone – and we will be reporting on the proceedings. Continue reading →