Sue Neill-Fraser case contradicts formal logic, analysis shows – part 1

Posted on September 2, 2020 by andrew

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 →

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Justice delayed … and delayed …. by Covid19

Posted on August 31, 2020 by andrew

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 →

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Australia needs a Criminal Cases Review Commission says leading forensic pathologist Prof Stephen Cordner

Posted on August 23, 2020 by andrew

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 →

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Sue Neill-Fraser – a wrongful arrest and 11 years later Part 2: a remedy

Posted on August 22, 2020 by andrew

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 →

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Sue Neill-Fraser – a wrongful arrest and 11 years later Part 1

Posted on August 20, 2020 by andrew

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 →

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Kamala Harris ex-prosecutor – a friend of justice?

Posted on August 12, 2020 by andrew

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 →

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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 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 →

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Sue Neill-Fraser ‘much loved and respected’ by inmates

Posted on August 2, 2020 by andrew

Two former prison inmates attending the Hobart vigil held on Saturday August 1, 2020 to mark the 4,000 days Sue Neill-Fraser has spent in jail, were interviewed by the Hobart Mercury’s Sally Glaetzer and the story was headline news in the paper’s online edition later that day. Neill-Fraser, the story said, made pavlovas on prisoners’ birthdays and gave legal advice; she is “much loved and respected by her fellow prisoners”. Continue reading →

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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 Australia. But now we have – and one of them of no less stature than revered former High Court judge, The Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG. Continue reading →

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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 mistakes and/or malpractice that sent people to prison. That’s a start – but The System must reduce the need to apologise. Reforms to The System would help, but The System is not reforming itself. Continue reading →

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