Susan Neill-Fraser case: Major Development: Bulletin: In a surprise move - in a case which has been paralleled with the notorious wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Lindy Chamberlain, famous for telling police a dingo had stolen her 10-week-old baby Azaria from a tent in Central Australia in 1980 - a judge has accelerated her appeal to March, 1917, reports "ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)"..."Pressure for an inquiry into the case came from Tasmanian federal independent politician Andrew Wilkie and QC Robert Richter, who in 2013 wrote to Attorney-General Brian Wightman claiming key witnesses and documents were not drawn to the jury's attention.Mr Richter likened the case to that of Lindy Chamberlain, whose conviction for murdering daughter Azaria at Uluru was quashed. "There's no dingo, but there's significant DNA and other evidentiary material to require answers which are not circumscribed by the adversarial and limited appellate processes," Mr Richter told documentary filmmakers. Attorney-General Wightman rejected Mr Richter's call and said if Neill-Fraser had new evidence she should take it to the courts. She will get that chance in March, 2017."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The past two weeks have been marked by a mind-blogging series of 'Major Developments; in cases this Blog has been following. First, in Louisiana,  Rodricus Crawford won his appeal on first degree murder charge in the death of his son Roderius, and was freed on bond, while prosecutors determine if they will proceed with a  new trial. Second, Kirstin Lobato,  Nevada, won a reversal of a lower court decision denying her appeal. The door has been opened for her for an evidentiary hearing before a new judge which will  consider grounds relating to  forensic evidence,   police and prosecutor misconduct issues, and issues involving ineffective assistance of counsel. Third, the San Antonio Four, Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh and Anna Vasquez, (Texas) were declared innocent and exonerated. And now,  in a surprise move, Susan Neill-Fraser's has had a date set for her appeal made possible under Tasmania's new right-to-appeal legislation. Quite a fortnight! 

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog,

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"A woman who is six years into a 23-year jail sentence for murdering her partner has had a date set for another appeal at freedom. In 2010, a jury was unanimous in its verdict Susan Neill-Fraser, 62, murdered her partner Bob Chappell, 65, on-board their yacht Four Winds off Hobart on Australia Day 2009. Neill-Fraser's conviction also came despite no body and no murder weapon being found.  One prominent legal identity, Melbourne criminal barrister Robert Richter QC, has drawn parallels to the case with the notorious wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Lindy Chamberlain, famous for telling police a dingo had stolen her 10-week-old baby Azaria from a tent in Central Australia in 1980.The Neill-Fraser case has sharply divided opinion as to the businesswoman's guilt or otherwise, with a documentary film devoted to "one of the most intriguing and alarming legal cases in recent Australian history" and Facebook pages and online petitions arguing she has been wrongfully convicted. Neill-Fraser appealed in 2011 and lost, albeit with a small victory of a three-year reduction to her original sentence of 26 years. The following year, an application for leave to appeal to the High Court was refused. In 2014, a coroner ruled Neill-Fraser had acted alone, with police rejecting any need to review the case. Tasmanian legislation passed in 2015 means Neill-Fraser could have another, previously unavailable, chance at freedom. On Thursday, in a surprise move, a judge set a date for Neill-Fraser to appeal. Under new Tasmanian right-to-appeal laws, the Court of Criminal Appeal could order Neill-Fraser's acquittal or retrial if she could satisfy the court there was "fresh and compelling evidence" and there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice. The case was last in court on November 21 when Neill-Fraser's legal team indicated they wanted Justice Shan Tennent disqualified from hearing the new appeal. The hearing on whether Justice Tennent should be disqualified was set down for December. But on Thursday Justice Tennent relisted the appeal — saying she was concerned about the time it was taking to get to appeal to the stage that it could be heard. Justice Tennent told the court she was vacating the December hearing as to whether she should be disqualified — not because she was conceding it had merit but to expedite matters. She said Neill-Fraser's appeal hearing would be heard by another judge when court sittings resumed next year. In 2010, Neill-Fraser told police she had left the yacht at 2:00pm on the day of the murder, went to Bunnings, afterwards going home to her West Hobart house where she stayed. But police could not find CCTV showing Neill-Fraser entering the hardware store. The case included circumstantial evidence from the Crown that 15 years earlier Neill-Fraser had asked a petty criminal, Phillip Triffitt, to kill her brother Patrick on a yacht and then dump the body at sea. DNA evidence from blood on the yacht was found to match that of Meaghan Vass, a homeless teenager at the time, further complicating matters. Failure by the prosecution to recall Ms Vass as a witness formed one of the grounds for the unsuccessful 2014 appeal......... Pressure for an inquiry into the case came from Tasmanian federal independent politician Andrew Wilkie and QC Robert Richter, who in 2013 wrote to Attorney-General Brian Wightman claiming key witnesses and documents were not drawn to the jury's attention."

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-25/bob-chappell-convicted-killer-susan-neill-fraser-appeal-date-set/8056718?pfmredir=sm