STORY: ‘No body’ murder convictions prompt calls for shake up of Australia’s legal system' by Megan Palin, published by news.com, on March 2, 2016.
GIST: "No witness. No confession. No body. None of that matters when it comes to a “no body” murder conviction if the offender’s guilt can be determined by circumstantial or forensic evidence. But the nature of the conviction doesn’t come without controversy and has significantly contributed to the emergence of innocence projects in Australia. The parents of murderer Keli Lane appeared on 60 Minutes on Sunday to speak publicly for the first time, about what they said was their daughter’s wrong conviction. Lane was convicted of murdering her two-day-old baby daughter within hours of leaving hospital in 1996. She secretly gave birth to three babies, adopted two of them out and told police she gave Tegan to her natural father, Andrew Morris or Norris, who police found did not exist. Tegan’s body has never been found. The family’s story is one of many relating to high profile ‘no body convictions’ in Australia. In 2010, Susan Blyth Neill-Fraser was jailed for life in Hobart for the murder of her de facto partner of 18 years, Bob Chappell. Chappell, 65, was about to retire as the Royal Hobart Hospital’s chief radiation physicist when he went missing from the couple’s yacht Four Winds while sailing off Hobart on Australia Day 2009. The judge said Neill-Fraser killed him for money. She was jailed for 26 years with an 18-year non-parole period. Chappell’s body has never been found and Neill-Fraser maintains her innocence. Criminal lawyer Barbara Etter — who represents Neill-Fraser — told news.com.au Australia’s legal system was in need of a shake up. She said “right to appeal” provisions were inconsistent in Australia and that an independent Criminal Cases Review Commission, similar to one in the UK, needed to be introduced. “New Innocence Projects are emerging here in Australia, but appealing a murder conviction, particularly after normal appeal avenues have failed, continues to be a David v Goliath battle,” Ms Etter said. In circumstances where appeals have been exhausted and “fresh and compelling evidence emerges”, the only way to get the matter back in court, in most cases, is to appeal to the executive under a petition for mercy.
“That can be problematic and not as transparent,” Ms Etter said. NSW, “unlike South Australia and Tasmania”, does not have legislation that allows for a second or subsequent appeal where there is fresh and compelling evidence, according to Ms Etter. “It would seem that there would be benefit in having some consistency in the current appeal provisions throughout Australia,” she said.
Ms Etter said there was a growing concern about miscarriage of justice cases because of an increase of exonerations in the US and public debate surrounding the US case of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, who featured on the Netflix docu-series Making a Murderer. She said Australia needed “to look at other mechanisms to enable those who may have been wrongfully convicted to get their matters back before the court in a reasonable time frame”. Proceed to the link below for the Lindy Chamberlain case and other cases of ‘no body convictions’ where the bodies are still missing:
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/no-body-murder-convictions-prompt-calls-for-shake-up-of-australias-legal-system/news-story/d19968b5c570d5e01a412663cba82215
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
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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:
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Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
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/
