"David Eastman is facing a long wait to learn if he
will face a new trial for the 1989 murder of senior AFP Officer Colin
Winchester after his stay application wrapped up in the ACT Supreme
Court.
Most of the two-week stay application, before Acting Justice David Ashley, was kept secret in a closed court. But in the first week Mr Eastman's team laid out a case suggesting he could not get a fair trial. The
grounds included an attack on the original prosecution with claims
there was a failure to disclose critical information, as well as Mr
Eastman's personal circumstances. Volumes of media coverage were
also subpoenaed by the legal team as evidence it would now be difficult
for Mr Eastman to get a fair trial. Mr Eastman was freed from
nearly twenty years in jail in 2014 after a $10 million dollar inquiry
found he did not get a fair trial. The inquiry run by Acting Justice Brian Martin uncovered deep flaws in the forensic case which was critical to his conviction. But
prosecutors remain determined to run a re-trial, saying there is still a
strong circumstantial case despite the passage of years. Assistant Australian Federal Police Commissioner Colin Winchester was shot dead as he arrived home in January 1989. One
of the many issues in the case was whether police and prosecutors
properly considered whether someone other than Mr Eastman was
responsible. One theory has linked the Mafia to the crime. That issue was considered by the Martin inquiry, which produced a sealed report on the matter. Justice
Ashley opened the stay hearings saying he would permit reporting
because the application was something of a hybrid between a trial and an
appellant proceeding. But much of the hearing was suppressed or heard in a closed court."http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-19/eastman-stay-application-ends-in-secret/7183438?section=act
