STORY: "Lundy wins Privy Council appeal rights," by reporter Kieran Campbell, published in the New Zealand Herald on February 14, 2013.
GIST: "Mark Lundy has won the right to appeal to London's Privy Council against his convictions for the murder of his wife and daughter. But family of Lundy's victims say they are angry that the case has "dragged out so long" - and that they weren't warned before the media that the appeal had been approved. A spokesman for the Privy Council this morning said Lundy's application to appeal had been accepted and a three-day hearing would take place in London during the week starting June 17. Lundy is serving 20 years in prison for murdering his wife Christine and 7-year-old daughter Amber in a brutal axe attack in their Palmerston North home in August 2000. In 2002 he lost an appeal to the Court of Appeal and had his non-parole period increased to 20 years, the longest non-parole period of imprisonment for a life sentence ever handed down in New Zealand......... Lundy's London-based lawyer, David Hislop QC, said the appeal would pivot on the science used to identify brain tissue found on a shirt. "We say [it was] flawed science, bad science, and we obviously want to argue that," Mr Hislop told RadioLIVE this morning. "It was never good science. In essence, what was deployed from the scientists from Texas was a scientific experiment. He'd never done it before, the science world had never done it before and we say he's got it wrong."......... Police would not comment on criticisms by Mr Hislop that detectives had relied on unrecognised science to charge Lundy with the murders. The Texan scientist whose evidence about the brain tissue was crucial in Lundy's arrest told APNZ he had been called as a witness for Lundy's Privy Council appeal. Dr Rodney Miller, the director of immunohistochemistry at ProPath in the United States, said he would not comment on claims his evidence was based on "bad science". He has previously said his evidence at the trail was "the most important piece of evidence pointing toward Mark Lundy's guilt". In a paper written in 2003 about his evidence, Dr Miller said he was sought out by Detective Sergeant Ross Grantham in mid-January 2001 regarding the Lundy murders. Dr Miller said Mr Grantham had already contacted forensic laboratories in New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States and been told they could not help in identifying whether Christine Lundy's DNA found on her husband's shirt was brain tissue. "Despite my inability to guarantee him success, he decided to bring the evidence from New Zealand to ProPath to see if we could prove that there was brain tissue on Mark Lundy's shirt," Dr Miller wrote. He was later flown to New Zealand for the trial and testified that the DNA on Lundy's shirt was his wife's brain tissue. Dr Miller wrote "the definitive identification of brain tissue on Mark Lundy's shirt using immunohistochemistry was the most important piece of evidence pointing toward Mark Lundy's guilt.""
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10865342
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
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/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
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.
