Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Derek Bromley: Australia; Major Setback: After protesting his innocence for 34 years following a conviction involving disgraced former South Australian Chief Pathologist Colin Manock, he has lost his bid for freedom, ABC News reports. "Bromley's appeal was the third launched on the basis that the former South Australian chief forensic pathologist, Colin Manock, gave incorrect evidence at a trial, with Henry Keogh successfully appealing against his conviction and Fritz Van Beelen losing his appeal last year. Mr Keogh served 21 years in jail for the drowning murder of his fiancée Anna Jane Cheney in a bath at the couple's home in Adelaide's north-eastern suburbs in March 1994. The Court of Criminal Appeal overturned Mr Keogh's conviction in 2015 after finding Dr Manock's flawed forensic evidence led to a miscarriage of justice. But on Tuesday, the court found the arguments for Bromley did not meet the requirement for "fresh and compelling" evidence. Mr Keogh, who attended the court hearing in support of Bromley, said he was shocked by the decision. "There are a lot of parallels between his case and mine and I am just lost for words," he said."


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Court of Criminal Appeal overturned Mr Keogh's conviction in 2015 after finding Dr Manock's flawed forensic evidence led to a miscarriage of justice. But on Tuesday, the court found the arguments for Bromley did not meet the requirement for "fresh and compelling" evidence. Mr Keogh, who attended the court hearing in support of Bromley, said he was shocked by the decision. "There are a lot of parallels between his case and mine and I am just lost for words," he said."

STORY: "After 34 years in jail, convicted murderer Derek Bromley loses bid to walk free, by  court reporter Rebecca Opie, publshed by ABC News on 

SUB-HEADINGS: Derek Bromley has served 34 years for the 1984 murder of Stephen Docoza; He sought to appeal his conviction on the grounds of "fresh and compelling" evidence but the Court of Criminal Appeal has rejected his bid; His family says the decision is "gut-wrenching".
    GIST: "After serving 34 years behind bars, a man's bid to overturn his murder conviction has been rejected. Derek Bromley and John Karpany were sentenced to life in prison, with a non-parole period of 32 years, for the murder of Stephen Docoza, whose body was found floating in the River Torrens in Adelaide's CBD in April 1984. Bromley, 62, has always maintained his innocence, but exhausted his avenues for appeal in the 1980s, in the years after his conviction. Although he served beyond his non-parole period, Bromley has remained in prison because he has consistently refused to say that he is guilty. His quest for freedom was reignited after legislation was passed in 2013 allowing prisoners to appeal again if they had "fresh and compelling" evidence. Standing outside court, Bromley's brother Russell Milera said he was extremely disappointed in the legal system. "I came here really excited but... it's another kick in the guts from the justice system," he said. "I came here for justice today but there's no justice in this place. "To see this happen is just gut-wrenching."'A real body blow': Bromley's appeal was the third launched on the basis that the former South Australian chief forensic pathologist, Colin Manock, gave incorrect evidence at a trial, with Henry Keogh successfully appealing against his conviction and Fritz Van Beelen losing his appeal last year. Mr Keogh served 21 years in jail for the drowning murder of his fiancée Anna Jane Cheney in a bath at the couple's home in Adelaide's north-eastern suburbs in March 1994. The Court of Criminal Appeal overturned Mr Keogh's conviction in 2015 after finding Dr Manock's flawed forensic evidence led to a miscarriage of justice. But on Tuesday, the court found the arguments for Bromley did not meet the requirement for "fresh and compelling" evidence. Mr Keogh, who attended the court hearing in support of Bromley, said he was shocked by the decision. "There are a lot of parallels between his case and mine and I am just lost for words," he said. Mr Keogh described Bromley during their time in jail as resilient and "fairly upbeat" despite his circumstances. "He just kept remaining buoyant, he did a better job of that than I did," he said. "I think he had more faith in the system than I had, but this would have been a real body blow. "You hope against hope — you are continually braced for bad news — but you still hope that it's going to turn your way. It's a tightrope that's incredibly difficult to walk." He said if he could see Bromley he would give him a hug and encourage him to keep trying. "I wouldn't say anything... in that situation words just don't suffice," Mr Keogh said. Why was the appeal rejected? Bromley's appeal unsuccessfully argued that new psychiatric evidence would support the notion that the prosecution's witness, Greg Carter, was unreliable because he was schizophrenic. Mr Carter told the original trial that he accompanied Bromley, Karpany and Mr Docoza to the banks of the River Torrens in the early hours of April 4 1984, seeing them attack Mr Docoza after he refused their demands for sex. "We conclude that although Carter was a person suffering from schizoaffective disorder — and may therefore have been susceptible to being affected by the phenomenon of 'suggestibility' — such risk did not here eventuate," the court found. "The evidence before this court does not demonstrate that the phenomenon of suggestibility led to Carter confabulating or acquiring a false memory of Bromley attacking the deceased.""

    The entire story can be read at the link below:
    Thttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-29/convicted-murderer-derek-bromley-loses-bid-to-walk-free/9811904

    See earlier Buzzfeed story -December 20, 2017)  at the link below for useful background on this unsuccessful appeal: (Indigenous Affairs Reporter): "Bromley’s appeal is based on knocking out two crucial pillars in the prosecution case — the eyewitness account of the man who implicated him, who was at the time suffering from schizophrenia; and evidence presented by Dr Colin Manock, formerly South Australia’s chief forensics expert.......... From 1968 to 1995, Dr Manock appeared as an expert witness in 400 cases, and performed more than 9,000 autopsies. His evidence was central in the case against Henry Keogh, who spent 21 years in jail for the murder of his fiancee Anna-Jane Cheney. In 2014, Keogh’s conviction was set aside after he appealed under the new statute. The hearing heard criticism of some of Dr Manock’s forensic evidence, and heard from a Victorian forensic pathologist that Cheney "more likely" died of natural causes. In an interview with Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program, Keogh said Dr Manock had played a major part in his conviction, stating he “was instrumental in turning what was just a senseless and tragic accident ... into something it wasn’t … a murder inquiry and a witch-hunt.” He believed others had suffered a similar fate: “I know there are others in exactly the same situation or very, very similar to the one I went through, who are still in prison now, have since been released, or are fighting to have their names cleared.” After Keogh’s appeal, hundreds of cases where Dr Manock acted as an expert witness were thrown into doubt, including the high profile deaths of three babies in the 1990s. Dr Manock determined they had died of bronchopneumonia, but a coronial inquiry into the baby’s deaths found that not only had there been no traces of bronchopneumonia, but all babies had signs of assault, including one baby who suffered multiple rib fractures. Manock performed the autopsy on Stephen Docoza, and found that he had died by drowning. He also found several bruises on Docoza’s body, which he determined had occurred in the 24 hours leading up to the man’s death. But Dr Manock’s findings were called into question by three expert witnesses at the application for leave to appeal earlier this year. All three pathologists gave evidence that the determination of drowning could not be substantiated. “Bromley’s case involves almost identical evidence to Keogh’s case,” Moles says. “You have to conduct a proper investigation of the body, and Manock didn’t do that.” Bromley’s appeal will also consider whether the eyewitness evidence in his original trial was unreliable.".......In December 2016, at a disputed facts hearing for Bromley’s leave of appeal, five forensic experts, including the Director of Public Prosecution’s own expert, claimed the evidence of the eyewitness was unreliable as he was suffering from a severe state of psychosis at the time he implicated Bromley. As part of his condition, he was experiencing hallucinations and delusions. “We have learned a lot about these psychotic conditions over a period of 30 years,” Moles said. “[Experts] now say that a person suffering from this condition has such fundamental cognitive deficiencies, that nothing can be relied upon at all, because we couldn’t know what was a product of what he actually saw and heard, and what he thought he saw,” Moles says. A key part of the appeal will rest on the reliability of this witness, and whether new advances in understanding his condition could be seen as “fresh and compelling evidence”.
      https://www.buzzfeed.com/amymcquire/an-aboriginal-man-who-has-maintained-his-innocence-for-33?utm_term=.nbxw9XMjO#.npee9Wywz

    PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.