"David Eastman's appeal aimed at blocking a fresh murder trial is expected to be heard in October by three Victorian judges in Melbourne. Mr Eastman spent nearly 20 years in jail for the murder of senior Australian Federal Police Commissioner Colin Winchester in Canberra in 1989. He was freed after an inquiry found there had been a miscarriage of justice, and a new trial was ordered. Mr Eastman tried to block the trial, with a stay application heard earlier this year. But in April the stay was thrown out, prompting an appeal. The case is expected to be heard in Melbourne over five days by three judges co-opted to the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Supreme Court. No local judges are able to sit on the case because of their past involvement. There has been so much secrecy in the case over the alternative theory that Colin Winchester was killed by organised crime figures that court orders will have to be made to allow materials to be moved to Victoria. The ACT Supreme Court is also planning the murder trial, with the search for a judge already begun. Today the court heard the trial was likely to be set down for early next year.........Mr (Kegan) Lee (prosecutor) said the prosecution needed time to prepare 280 witnesses. In a separate case, Mr Eastman is trying to sue the ACT Government for wrongful imprisonment."
http://canmua.net/world/david-eastman-and-039;s-appeal-to-block-new-murder-trial-not-to-be-heard-in-canberra-845296.html
See previous post on this Blog (February 8, 2016) at the link below: "Stay application (1): The Canberra Times reports that he has launched his last-ditch bid to stave off a second trial for the 1989 murder of ACT (Australian Capital Territory) police chief Colin Winchester. One of the six grounds in favour of his argument that a retrial cannot now be conducted fairly is that, "prosecutorial misconduct occurred in the original trial, particularly due to what the defence argues was a deliberate strategy to conceal weaknesses in the forensic evidence by not disclosing some information to Mr Eastman"..."A former ACT prosecutor involved in the 1995 trial of Mr Eastman, John Edward Ibbotson, was the first witness to be called in the stay application on Monday. Mr Ibbotson was responsible, among other things, for marshalling the forensic evidence in the case against Mr Eastman, which linked the disgruntled Treasury official with the driveway where Mr Winchester was shot at point-blank range as he got out of his car. The 2014 inquiry into Mr Eastman's conviction destroyed the reliability and credibility of the expert who conducted the gunshot residue analysis that made that link."..." One new revelation to emerge in the stay application on Monday was a letter written by Mr Barnes, which criticised the overseas-based experts reviewing his work. That letter was not made available to the 2014 Eastman inquiry, despite subpoenas. Mr Barnes' letter, which was headed with a caution that it be kept secret, highlighted the extent of the divisions between the forensic experts. Yet it was never given to the defence, and was never shown to the jury. Mr Griffin alleges the prosecution deliberately tried to prevent any indication to the jury that the forensic experts were in conflict."
