Gordon Wood loses malicious claim

Posted on August 10, 2018 by andrew

By Andrew L. Urban

Although Justice Fullerton offers serious criticisms of now retired Senior prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC’s ‘disingenuous’ behaviour at the 2012 trial, and the reasons for her decision at 500 pages make up the equivalent of a book, none of that will satisfy either Gordon Wood nor any of the critics of her decision to deliver a verdict in favour of the defendants, the State of NSW. Wood was hoping his malicious prosecution suit would further vindicate his successful appeal against his murder conviction. To complete the catastrophe for Wood, he has to pay all costs. Continue reading →

Posted in Case 04 Gordon Wood | 1 Comment

Murder by the Prosecution – pre-order now available

Posted on July 31, 2018 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban’s new book, Murder by the Prosecution, is now available for pre-order from Wilkinson Publishing Exposing some grave mistakes in Australia’s not-so-trustworthy criminal justice system, film critic-turned activist journalist Andrew L. Urban recounts how his life is changed when he is drawn into the field of wrongful convictions after reviewing a documentary about the case of Hobart grandmother, Sue Neill-Fraser, convicted of murder … without evidence.

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Sue Neill-Fraser – what the jury didn’t hear

Posted on July 24, 2018 by andrew

By Andrew L. Urban

By the evening of Australia Day 2009 in Hobart, the blustery wind was calming down and the fine day was turning into a balmy summer night. Helen set out for an 80th birthday party at a friend’s house. Her daughter’s splendid new yacht, Four Winds, was moored some 500 metres offshore in full view from the front windows of her house on Marieville Esplanade. By early next morning, Four Winds would be taking on water and her daughter’s partner was missing from the yacht.

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Posted in Case 01 Sue Neill-Fraser | 4 Comments

South Australia’s appeal court flouts the law

Posted on July 2, 2018 by andrew

Derek Bromley was convicted of murder in 1984, wrongfully, in the opinion of several legal experts; now, his latest appeal (June 2018) flounders when South Australia’s appeal court “fundamentally failed to pay due regard to the rule of law and to the well-established principles governing criminal appeals,” according to legal academics Dr Bob Moles and Bibi Sangha. “The principles espoused in the Bromley decision are not only contrary to established authority but have never before appeared in any legal judgment in Australia, Britain or Canada.”

Moles and Sangha have issued the following briefing note on this latest legal catastrophe in Adelaide, which amounts to a second wrongful conviction of Derek Bromley, already in prison for 35 years.

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Posted in Case 05 Derek Bromley | 16 Comments

Sue Neill-Fraser: ABC crime report fails fact check

Posted on July 1, 2018 by andrew

Andrew L. Urban

It is disturbing when a crime reporter gets crime reporting wrong, as did Rochelle Jackson on ABC Radio’s Nightlife with Suzanna Hill on June 28, 2018, talking about one of the most important and controversial legal cases currently before the courts: the Sue Neil-Fraser case.

In flagrant disregard of the facts, Jackson misled listeners on a number of issues.

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Posted in Case 01 Sue Neill-Fraser | 10 Comments

The Staircase – step by step injustice

Posted on June 19, 2018 by andrew

By Andrew L. Urban

On a sunny winter Saturday afternoon in Sydney, I started watching The Staircase, thinking I’d spend a couple of hours on it. It was Sunday afternoon, before I finished my binge, only breaking for dinner and sleep. The Staircase is some 13 hours of riveting and disturbing viewing, a slow motion disaster movie in which a man is crushed by the state, the prosecution determined to secure a murder conviction – by fair means or foul.

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Sue Neill-Fraser Support Group – a profile of persistent people power

Posted on June 7, 2018 by andrew

By Andrew L. Urban, Jennie Herrera, Lynn Giddings

When the Supreme Court in Hobart convenes for the final, crucial session on August 20, 2018, to hear Sue Neill-Fraser seeking leave to appeal against her murder conviction, members of the official Sue Neill-Fraser Support Group Inc. will be there for her, as they have been since even before her controversial murder conviction in October 2010. Who are they? What drives them? How did they coalesce into the determined and persistent citizen army they have remained? What have they achieved?

For those unfamiliar with the Neill-Fraser case, our March 2015 report provides a full background briefing. It is one of several media reports over the years (of them a great many published here on Wrongful Convictions Report), but the extensive, highly visible role of the Sue Neill-Fraser Support Group has never been properly reflected in those reports. In this double-decker feature, Continue reading →

Posted in Case 01 Sue Neill-Fraser | 6 Comments

Sue Neill-Fraser – video flashback

Posted on April 15, 2018 by andrew

There are very substantial doubts about this case … the evidence is so weak …. it is hard to see how any conviction could stand … Tasmania’s legal system risks being a laughing stock, if it wasn’t such a tragedy. The words of Chester Porter QC on the Sue Neill-Fraser case.

Chester Porter QC and Stuart Tipple – both key players in the notorious Lindy Chamberlain miscarriage of justice – were part of the panel discussion* at the only Sydney screening (Chauvel, November 5, 2013), of Shadow of Doubt, Eve Ash’s award winning documentary about the flawed investigation that led to Sue Neill-Fraser’s conviction for the murder of her partner, Bob Chappell.   Continue reading →

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Prosecutorial immunity in the hands of psychopaths? A case study

Posted on April 5, 2018 by andrew

By Andrew L. Urban.

Small time crim John Thompson was nearly executed for a murder he didn’t commit. At his trial in 1985, the New Orleans prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence. Then District Attorney – Harry Connick Snr (now retired) – brags about the aggressive, win at all costs culture in his office.

In this New Yorker podcast, we hear him confirm his office is there to get convictions: “that’s what we do”. He chuckles as he recalls that “a lot of defendants weren’t happy with what we were doing,” shrugging off their concerns: “we weren’t there for them – we’re there for those who elected us”. Thompson (below) knows that all too well.

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A law unto themselves, absent model principles

Posted on April 3, 2018 by andrew

Bill Rowlings* questions how ‘professional’ is the Legal Profession Board of Tasmania. It’s a quango that only recently worked out it needs to abide by model litigant principles, a decade after it was created. And it seems to particularly dislike the right of people to question, scrutinise and dissent.

Barbara Etter** is a lawyer who has been contesting complaints against her that are being investigated by the Legal Profession Board.

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Posted in General articles | 5 Comments