"A bid to avoid retrial by David Harold Eastman is expected to be heard in February. Meanwhile, a decision on whether to further relax the murder accused's bail conditions will be delivered on Friday. Acting Justice David Ashley, QC, on Thursday set a new timeframe
for proceedings after the matter hit a number of delays caused by
illness, legal process, and the hunt for a judge. Eastman is accused of the 1989 assassination of Assistant Federal Police Commissioner Colin Winchester. He served 19 years in jail for the murder, until an inquiry found his 1995 trial had been a miscarriage of justice. Eastman's conviction was subsequently quashed and the prosecution announced it would pursue a retrial. Eastman has launched a stay application to halt the retrial on the grounds he will not be able to get a fair hearing.........A sticking point between the parties has been the availability of evidence before the stay application. Eastman's legal team argues the application should be delayed until the defence is shown the entire prosecution case. Defence
counsel Mark Griffin, QC, asked that the judge set a cutoff date after
which time the prosecution could not add further evidence to the case. The silk said it would be unfair to mount a stay application when the full prosecution case was unknown. But
the prosecution says the continued collection of evidence – including
forensic tests overseas – should not delay the stay application."