Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Susan Neill-Fraser: Australia: The Mercury reports: '‘Game-changing’ evidence next year as Sue Neill-Fraser’s appeal against her murder conviction adjourned..." The legislation requires the evidence to be “fresh and compelling” for the outcome of 2010 murder trial to be altered. The defence is banking on their next witness, crime scene expert Dr Mark Reynolds, to satisfy that threshold. They will use his evidence to attack the police winching reconstruction aboard the Four Winds. The reconstruction was used to support the prosecution’s case that Neill-Fraser winched Mr Chappell’s body from the yacht to be disposed. Her barrister Tom Percy QC has told the court the “fresh evaluation” of the winching experiment would show it “lacked any genuine scientific veracity”. Outside court on Wednesday, daughter Sarah Bowles said the delay was disappointing but she was confident the appeal was gaining ground. “This case has always been about the scientific evidence and we’re calling our key scientific expert in March 2018 so we’re looking forward to that,” she said."