STORY: "Three judges to decide on Eastman guilt named," by reporter Christopher Knaus, published by the Canberra Times on June 4, 2014.
GIST: "Justices Rares, Wigney, and Cowdroy will now consider the final report of the Eastman inquiry, which called for his conviction to be quashed. Should the judges follow the inquiry's recommendation, Eastman would be freed after serving 19 years of a life sentence. Eastman would walk despite inquiry head acting Justice Brian Martin saying that he was ''fairly certain'' of his guilt but had a nagging doubt. The three judges can only decide from four options; quash the conviction, quash the conviction and order a re-trial, confirm the conviction, or confirm the conviction and recommend the ACT executive pardon the prisoner. They can consider only acting Justice Martin's report in reaching their decision. Police and prosecutors can make no further submissions to influence them. A re-trial would be next to impossible, and a pardon appears unlikely......... But the inquiry, steered mainly by counsel assisting Liesl Chapman, SC, has uncovered some startling evidence. Most critically, it identified serious flaws with the forensic analysis, greatly weakening the link between Eastman and the crime scene. The work of Robert Collins Barnes, a Victorian-based expert brought in by the Australian Federal Police to work on the Winchester case, was exposed as unreliable and lacking veracity. Failings in the duty of prosecutors to disclose material to Eastman's defence, particularly about Barnes, were also identified. "
GIST: "Justices Rares, Wigney, and Cowdroy will now consider the final report of the Eastman inquiry, which called for his conviction to be quashed. Should the judges follow the inquiry's recommendation, Eastman would be freed after serving 19 years of a life sentence. Eastman would walk despite inquiry head acting Justice Brian Martin saying that he was ''fairly certain'' of his guilt but had a nagging doubt. The three judges can only decide from four options; quash the conviction, quash the conviction and order a re-trial, confirm the conviction, or confirm the conviction and recommend the ACT executive pardon the prisoner. They can consider only acting Justice Martin's report in reaching their decision. Police and prosecutors can make no further submissions to influence them. A re-trial would be next to impossible, and a pardon appears unlikely......... But the inquiry, steered mainly by counsel assisting Liesl Chapman, SC, has uncovered some startling evidence. Most critically, it identified serious flaws with the forensic analysis, greatly weakening the link between Eastman and the crime scene. The work of Robert Collins Barnes, a Victorian-based expert brought in by the Australian Federal Police to work on the Winchester case, was exposed as unreliable and lacking veracity. Failings in the duty of prosecutors to disclose material to Eastman's defence, particularly about Barnes, were also identified. "
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/three-judges-to-decide-on-eastman-guilt-named-20140603-39he3.html
Related story: Judges to meet Tuesday to work out "directions" for their hearings:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-05/eastman-directions-hearing/5503644?section=act
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
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.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
