"In Australia, there have been two recent cases where people convicted of murder have had their convictions quashed after serving lengthy jail terms.
Andrew Mallard in Perth and Graham Stafford in Queensland were released from prison after a team of legal and other experts investigated their cases pro bono for years, and found new evidence in the process.
But these cases may be the tip of an iceberg.
The case attracting the most attention is in the legal fraternity is the Henry Keogh case in South Australia.
Keogh has been in jail in Adelaide for the past 16 years after being found guilty of drowning his fiance, Anna Jane Cheney, in the bath of her Adelaide home.
He was convicted of her murder and sentenced for life.
For the past 10 years a group of lawyers, medical experts, and human rights advocates has been campaigning for the re-opening of Keogh's case.
They say the much of the forensic evidence given by a Crown expert witness at the trial is flawed."
REPORTER HAGAR COHEN: ABC NEWS;
PHOTO: HENRY KEOGH;
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BACKGROUND: This Blog has devoted numerous posts to the conviction and incarceration of Henry Keogh in August 1995 for the murder of his fiancée, Anna Jane Cheney in the face of what Dr. Bob Moles, who has deeply investigated the case, has called "a combination of fraud, deceit and manifest error."
Dr. Moles and his colleagues have launched one of the most thorough, intensive attacks on pathology evidence in a criminal case that I have ever seen - and have come up over the years with cogent new evidence destroying the prosecution's forensic case.
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"A recently retired High Court judge has added his voice to calls for a shake-up of the criminal justice system," the ABC News story by reporter Hagar Cohen published earlier today begins, under the heading, "Quashed convictions spark calls for legal shake-up: Michael Kirby says he would support a body to review criminal cases where there are allegations of miscarriage of justice. (ABC News)."
"Michael Kirby says he would support the establishment of an independent body to review criminal cases where there are allegations of a miscarriage of justice," the story continues.
""What we need to consider in Australia is a body which is full-time working on examining these cases, so that it doesn't depend upon a letter written to some newspaper that gets people behind it," he said
"There are too many chance factors in that and too many possibilities of slipping through the floor boards."
A Criminal Case Review Commission in Britain was set up 10 years ago, tasked with investigating prisoners claims of innocence.
In Australia, there have been two recent cases where people convicted of murder have had their convictions quashed after serving lengthy jail terms.
Andrew Mallard in Perth and Graham Stafford in Queensland were released from prison after a team of legal and other experts investigated their cases pro bono for years, and found new evidence in the process.
But these cases may be the tip of an iceberg.
The case attracting the most attention is in the legal fraternity is the Henry Keogh case in South Australia.
Keogh has been in jail in Adelaide for the past 16 years after being found guilty of drowning his fiance, Anna Jane Cheney, in the bath of her Adelaide home.
He was convicted of her murder and sentenced for life.
For the past 10 years a group of lawyers, medical experts, and human rights advocates has been campaigning for the re-opening of Keogh's case.
They say the much of the forensic evidence given by a Crown expert witness at the trial is flawed.
The Keogh team says the autopsy conducted by then-chief forensic pathologist in Adelaide Doctor Colin Manock was incomplete, and that some of his expert advice was wrong.
'Miscarriage of justice'
One of the people who has been working on the Keogh case is Doctor Byron Collins, a Melbourne based forensic pathologist.
He says Doctor Manock had diagnosed non-accidental drowning as the cause of death, without excluding conditions like epilepsy, heart infection or sudden unexpected collapse.
"In this case where the autopsy is incomplete, I think it's really inappropriate to say that this is homicide from the witness box," Dr Collins said.
In a rare interview, Dr Manock told ABC1's Background Briefing program that he rejects the criticism and stands by his autopsy report.
"At the time it was an obvious case of drowning and I felt that the findings that I described were sufficient to support drowning," he said.
The Keogh case is closed, so the South Australian Attorney General must approve the re-opening of the case for new evidence to be heard in court.
But former attorney-general Michael Atkinson has already refused three petitions from Keogh's lawyers asking for the evidence to be re-examined.
They are now in the process of submitting a fourth petition.
Keogh's barrister Kevin Borick and the other legal experts working on the Keogh case have been pushing for the establishment of an independent criminal case review commission, that could assess the new evidence in the Keogh case.
"There's a very powerful case that there was a miscarriage of justice, that the trial process was totally unfair," he said."
The story can be found at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/16/2956081.htm
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 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 accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-feature-cases-issues-and.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
