"While the royal commission concluded there was sufficient evidence consistent with dingo involvement to make Chamberlain-Creighton's conviction unsafe, Charles Darwin University law lecturer Andrew Hemming says it's a significant additional step to regard the dingo as the most reliable entry for the death certificate.
"In terms of probabilities, this is akin to saying a single outcome (the dingo) is more reliable than all other possibilities (the unknown)," Hemming says.
"My feeling is the registrar will be unable to make that leap.""
REPORTER DAVID NASON: THE AUSTRALIAN;
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BACKGROUND: WIKIPEDIA): Michael and Lindy Chamberlain's first daughter, Azaria, was born on June 11, 1980. When Azaria was two months old, Michael and Lindy Chamberlain took their three children on a camping trip to Ayers Rock, arriving on August 16, 1980. On the night of August 17, Chamberlain reported that the child had been taken from her tent by a dingo. A massive search was organised, but all that was found were remains of some of the bloody clothes, which confirmed the death of baby Azaria. Her body has never been discovered. Although the initial coronal inquiry supported the Chamberlains' account of Azaria's disappearance, Lindy Chamberlain was later prosecuted for the murder of her child on the basis of the finding of the baby's jumpsuit and of tests that appeared to indicate the presence of blood found in the Chamberlains' car. This forensic gathering convicted her of murder on October 29, 1982, and sentenced her to life imprisonment; the theory was that she slit the child's throat and hid the body. Michael Chamberlain was convicted as an accessory to murder. Shortly after her conviction, Lindy Chamberlain gave birth to her fourth child, Kahlia, on November 17, 1982, in prison. An appeal against her conviction was rejected by the High Court in February, 1984. New evidence emerged on February 2, 1986 when a remaining item of Azaria's clothing was found partially buried near Uluru in an isolated location, adjacent to a dingo lair. This was the matinee jacket which the police had maintained for years did not exist. Five days later, Chamberlain was released. The Northern Territory Government publicly said it was because "she had suffered enough." In view of inconsistencies in the earlier blood testing which gave rise to potential reasonable doubts about the propriety of her conviction and as DNA testing was not as advanced in the early 1980s it emerged that the 'baby blood' found in her car could have been any substance, Lindy Chamberlain's life sentence was remitted by the Northern Territory Government and a Royal Commission began to investigate the matter in 1987. Chamberlain's conviction was overturned in September, 1988 and another inquest in 1995 returned an open verdict. In recent years there have been fatal dingo attacks on children, one famous instance being at the holiday resort at Fraser Island.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: It's hard to imagine a more reasonable request than Lindy Chamberlain's bid for a new death certificate which will record the truth - that Azaria was killed by a dingo. To lose a child in those circumstances is bad enough. To be branded as her killer on the basis of ignorance, fear-mongering, faulty police investigation, erroneous expert evidence and a wanting court process, makes matters all the worse. This is compounded by an oppressive prosecution in which Lindy Chamberlain did not have the opportunity to access and conduct tests on key pieces of forensic evidence before her trial. A refusal by the authorities to take such a simple, warranted step, would only be seen as furthering the injustice inflicted on Lindy Chamberlain and her family. It is no answer to say she has been pardoned or that her conviction has been quashed. There will understandably be no closure from the legal process and its dreadful consequences for her until the public record - the death certificate - is corrected. That can't happen soon enough.
HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG.
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"THE mail arriving at the law firm of Brennan Tipple Partners in the NSW town of Gosford has been more hostile of late, but that's not unusual when Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton is making news," the story by reporter David Nason published in the Australian on September 11, 2010 begins, under the heading, "Registrar probes the unknown in Azaria case."
"Stuart Tipple, Chamberlain-Creighton's long-time advocate, is mystified why people, after all these years, feel the need to write him letters saying his client is guilty," the story continues.
""I can't believe people would actually waste their time," Tipple says. "But it shows the feeling still out there."
No doubt the mailbag will be heavier if Chamberlain-Creighton succeeds in having a dingo officially recorded as the cause of her baby Azaria's death at Ayers Rock in 1980.
In an open letter posted on her website to mark the 30th anniversary of Azaria's death, Chamberlain-Creighton said her daughter would never have justice until the open finding brought down by Coroner John Lowndes in 1995 was overturned.
Lowndes, presiding over the third and final coronial inquiry, found that "the cause and manner of Azaria's death cannot be determined and must remain unknown".
In her letter, Chamberlain-Creighton recalls the Crown's assertion at her 1982 murder trial that it was either "Lindy or the dingo".
Given her exoneration at a 1987 royal commission, wasn't it only right that a dingo be registered as the official cause of death?
The argument resonated with Northern Territory Attorney-General Delia Lawrie who, imaginatively, decided to reopen the case by referring it to Peter Shoyer, the Territory registrar of births, death and marriages.
Section 39 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Act (NT) empowers Shoyer to inquire whether an entry has been correctly recorded. Section 40 allows him to make a correction, so long as it conforms with the most reliable information available.
So the question for Shoyer, a solicitor with a background in FOI, is whether the existing entry of "unknown" is more reliable than its alternative, the dingo.
While the royal commission concluded there was sufficient evidence consistent with dingo involvement to make Chamberlain-Creighton's conviction unsafe, Charles Darwin University law lecturer Andrew Hemming says it's a significant additional step to regard the dingo as the most reliable entry for the death certificate.
"In terms of probabilities, this is akin to saying a single outcome (the dingo) is more reliable than all other possibilities (the unknown)," Hemming says.
"My feeling is the registrar will be unable to make that leap."
Shoyer is keeping his own counsel, declining to explain the process or give a timeframe for a decision.
It's not at all clear if he will decide alone, make a recommendation to Lawrie or whether the territory cabinet will make the final call.
Also unknown is the weight that will be attached to the decision of the NT Police to keep the Azaria Chamberlain file open."
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The story can be found at:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/registrar-probes-the-unknown-in-azaria-case/story-e6frgczx-1225917056726
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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://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;