Wrongful Convictions Report

Andrew L. Urban.

It was 10 years ago: “This case calls for an inquiry,” said the late and great defence barrister Chester Porter KC, after a public screening (at Sydney’s Chauvel Cinema) of Shadow of Doubt, Eve Ash’s documentary about the Sue Neill-Fraser case. You can watch him here. Accompanied and supported by former Lindy Chamberlain lawyer Stuart Tipple, the great man warned that Tasmania could become a laughing stock, if it wasn’t so serious. And ten years later, Tasmania has resolutely chosen to stay a legal laughing stock.

“His formidable ability to both charm and devour his prey during cross-examination as a top defence barrister earned Chester Porter two epitaphs. One, that he could walk on water, which he adopted in a book title. The other, he was not as fond of, as the ‘smiling funnel-web’,” Wrote Anna Patty (SMH March 17, 2021) on Porter’s death at age 95.

The late Chester Porter KC

Porter was only the first eminent lawyer with whom Tasmania’s Attorney-General Elise Archer disagrees, denying the need for a Commission of Inquiry into the controversial case.

She also disagrees with:

Barbara Etter APM
Dr Bob Moles
Greg Barns SC
Hugh Selby
Jeff Thompson
Lara Giddings
Marcus Einfeld KC
Margaret Cunneen SC
Paul Galbally
Robert Richter KC
Tom Percy KC

… and 37,000 signatories to a petition.

Today is the second anniversary of the tabling of papers in the Tasmanian Legislative Council that dissect many serious problems with the investigation and prosecution of Sue Neill-Fraser for the 2009 Australia Day murder of her partner, but Tasmanian media and law bodies have been careful not to have a look. Former barrister HUGH SELBY (a co-author of the tabled papers) says that’s the Tassie way, but does it have to be?
Continue reading →

Dear Attorney,

In my new book, The Exoneration Papers – Sue Neill-Fraser (Wilkinson Publishing), I challenge your claims as to why you have not and will not instigate a Commission of Inquiry into the case of Sue Neill-Fraser. I invite you to publicly respond to my criticisms of your reasons.  Continue reading →

Andrew L. Urban

I suspect* that Hobart grandmother Sue Neill-Fraser, convicted** in 2010 of murdering her partner of 18 years Bob Chappell, whose body has never been found, can’t wait to be injected with the truth drug Sodium Pentothal that has been proposed by two senior barristers as a way to force convicted killers to reveal the bodies of their victims and give closure to the families of victims. Trial judge Alan Blow (now Tasmania’s Chief Justice) handed Sue Neill-Fraser an extra long sentence for not revealing that information. (The appeal court chided him, ever so respectfully, and took three years off the 26 year sentence he imposed.) Continue reading →

“Mr Sofronoff deserves the nation’s gratitude for turning our minds to the next issue: the extent to which other prosecutors are sidelining fundamental principles in order to secure convictions …” The Australian, Wednesday, August 9, 2023.  Continue reading →