BACKGROUND: "On July 18, 2009, newsagent Min Lin, 45, Mr Lin’s wife Yun Li “Lily” Lin, 44, their sons Henry, 12, and Terry, 9, and Mrs Lin’s sister, Yun Bin “Irene” Lin, 39, are found dead in their North Epping home. Police investigations over the next six months fail to find clues or culprits. In January 2010, police set up surveillance on Robert Xie: cameras and listening devices installed in his house and car. Still nothing. On May 5, 2011, Robert Xie is arrested and charged with five counts of murder. There was no direct evidence that Robert Xie viciously murdered the five members of his wife’s family nor any credible circumstantial evidence. In the absence of any durable evidence that pointed to Robert Xie, the police exhibited tunnel vision to focus on Xie. The prosecution continued the process and made much of a DNA sample (‘stain 91’) taken from the Xie family home garage floor, 200 metres from the Lin family’s house, the scene of the murders. Expert witnesses provided extensive but conflicting testimony, and in the end, none of them could exclude young Brenda Lin from the DNA sample; but Brenda was overseas on a school excursion at the time of the murders. In stain91 six profiles were found with scores exceeding 4000; they were the six members of the family – yet there were only 5 victims. Since Brenda was out of the country at the time, it is virtually impossible for the DNA in stain91 to have originated from the crime scene. The appeal against his 2017 conviction has been delayed by the Crown, most recently in October 2019 and is expected to be heard in 2020."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Belinda Rigg, for Xie, had earlier argued there was a possibility that the stain mixture had the DNA of living blood relatives of the murder victims. These included Kathy and Min Lin’s parents, Kathy Lin herself, and two other close relatives. Ms Rigg said the DNA of the two deceased boys could also have got on to the garage floor because they “played regularly in the garage before their deaths”. She said Xie’s appeal was based on the analysis of DNA material, a miscarriage of justice by steps not taken by counsel at the murder trial, and “flawed” evidence of a DNA expert. She said Min Lin’s father had resided at the Xie family home and had “brought property from the (Lin family) house and stored it in the garage” following the murders. Ms Rigg was critical of the evidence of Dr Mark Perlin, whose DNA testimony she said had left “a vastness of uncertainty” regarding matches of the sample found in Xie’s garage to the DNA of up to four of the five deceased. She said a jury “needs to understand … how highly uncertain this data is”. She said Dr Perlin had “cherrypicked” and “glossed over” data. “There was a very high degree of uncertainty … in the data … which was not adequately conveyed to the jury,” Ms Rigg told the court."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GIST: "A tiny spot found on the garage floor named “Stain 91” of family murderer Robert Xie helped convict him of bludgeoning to death five relatives, his appeal hearing heard today. to death five relatives, his appeal hearing heard today.
The stain, measuring 2 centimetres by 6 millimetres, was found under a chest of drawers in Xie’s garage, Crown prosecutor Anna Michelmore SC told the appeal on Tuesday.
Ms Michelmore said it had been the Crown case that Stain 91 had the DNA of four of the five murder victims, Min Lin, his sons Henry, 12, and Terry, 9 and their aunt, Irene Lin.
Three female police forensic biologists had found the stain while searching the garage floor on their hands and knees on May 13, 2010, 10 months after the murders.
Robert Xie is appealing his conviction for the murders of Min Lin, his wife Lily, sons Henry and Terry and Lily’s sister Irene who were bludgeoned to death in their beds inside their North Epping home in July 2009.
Ms Michelmore was addressing three appeal judges after two days of submissions by Xie’s counsel Belinda Rigg SC who argued the trial jury had been misled by a DNA expert.
Dressed in prison greens, Xie appeared via video link from Lithgow Correctional Centre before Chief Justice Thomas Bathurst, Justice Robert Hulme and Justice Robert Beech-Jones.
Xie was convicted and sentenced to five life sentences without parole at a fourth trial in 2017.
The moment Stain 91, one of the pivotal parts of the Crown’s case to convict Xie, was uncovered was described by Ms Michelmore.
The forensic biologists had gone to Xie’s home, which was located a few hundred metres from the murder house in which the Lin family died.
The court heard Xie had revealed in his first police record of interview, on July 18, 2009 just hours after the murders, that “he had cleaned up his garage” because it was a bit untidy.
When the three forensic biologists arrivd to swab the stain and tested it “the stain had a strong presumptive test for blood” and turned “an instant and bright blue”.
A second test also went an instant and strong blue.
One of the biologists, Jae Gerhard, an expert in blood stain pattern analysis, believed Stain 91 looked like a transfer stain, and was “well preserved” from lying under the drawers.
Senior NSW forensic biologist and DNA analyst Clayton Walton had given evidence at Xie’s trial that the stain had the DNA of “Min, Terry, Henry and Irene”.
A transfer stain occurred “on a surface wet with blood which has come into contact with another surface” and there has been “compression or movement”.
Ms Michelmore said the defence case at trial was the jury “could not be satisfied Stain 91 was a blood stain” and if it believed it was blood “it could not be satisfied it didn’t have extraneous material” swabbed from the garage floor.
Xie’s wife Kathy, whose brother Min Lin and his immediate family are among the murder victims, sat in the court during this week’s hearings.
Belinda Rigg, for Xie, had earlier argued there was a possibility that the stain mixture had the DNA of living blood relatives of the murder victims.
Ms Rigg said the DNA of the two deceased boys could also have got on to the garage floor because they “played regularly in the garage before their deaths”.
She said Xie’s appeal was based on the analysis of DNA material, a miscarriage of justice by steps not taken by counsel at the murder trial, and “flawed” evidence of a DNA expert.
She said Min Lin’s father had resided at the Xie family home and had “brought property from the (Lin family) house and stored it in the garage” following the murders.
Ms Rigg was critical of the evidence of Dr Mark Perlin, whose DNA testimony she said had left “a vastness of uncertainty” regarding matches of the sample found in Xie’s garage to the DNA of up to four of the five deceased.
She said a jury “needs to understand … how highly uncertain this data is”.
She said Dr Perlin had “cherrypicked” and “glossed over” data.
“There was a very high degree of uncertainty … in the data … which was not adequately conveyed to the jury,” Ms Rigg told the court.
Ms Michelmore told their honours on Tuesday that the Ms Rigg’s proposal to call Dr Perlin to testify at the appeal amounted to introducing “additional evidence” not heard at the murder trial.
“It would enable persons on appeal to seek to run quite a different case,” she said.
The appeal which is due to run over five days has heard lengthy and complex submissions about DNA, genomes and alleles, which are alternative forms of genes found on chromosomes.
The fourth trial which convicted Xie came after two trials which were aborted, and a third trial ending in a hung jury.
The Lin family, which had migrated from China to live in Sydney six years earlier, was attacked in their beds after Xie let himself into their Sydney home on the night of July 18, 2009.
Xie used a hammer-like object attached to his wrist by a rope. The victims were killed by repeated blows to the head and four of the five were also asphyxiated. One victim was hit 18 times and the family home was covered in blood.
The murder trial heard that a furious struggle took place in the bedroom of Xie’s young nephews Henry and Terry, and that Terry was alive for up to two hours after the attack.
One blood stain, labelled “Stain 91” became an integral part of the Crown’s case which said it contained four of the five victim’s DNA and was found in Xie’s garage ten months later.
Xie had a sexual fascination with a teenager connected to the family, and would rub himself against her while erect, the murder trial also heard,
Following Xie’s conviction, Min Lin’s father Feng Quin Zhu said via a Mandarin interpreter: “My son has been avenged. The law has given me truth. God can see this.”
Xie, a former surgeon who moved to Australia from China, maintained his innocence and claimed he had no motive to commit the murders.
Evidence during the trial claimed Robert Xie was out of favour in the family because he had been unemployed while Min and Lily Lin ran a popular and successful Epping newsagency.
The Crown said Xie had been motivated by anger and resentment over perceived “subordinate status” within the extended family, and the high regard given to his brother-in-law.
Xie also had a financial motive, the trial heard, and after the murders had tried to take control of the family newsagency, the Lin’s North Epping home and two investment units.
The appeal continues."
The entire story can be read at:
One blood stain, labelled “Stain 91” became an integral part of the Crown’s case which said it contained four of the five victim’s DNA and was found in Xie’s garage ten months later.
Xie had a sexual fascination with a teenager connected to the family, and would rub himself against her while erect, the murder trial also heard,
Following Xie’s conviction, Min Lin’s father Feng Quin Zhu said via a Mandarin interpreter: “My son has been avenged. The law has given me truth. God can see this.”
Xie, a former surgeon who moved to Australia from China, maintained his innocence and claimed he had no motive to commit the murders.
Evidence during the trial claimed Robert Xie was out of favour in the family because he had been unemployed while Min and Lily Lin ran a popular and successful Epping newsagency.
The Crown said Xie had been motivated by anger and resentment over perceived “subordinate status” within the extended family, and the high regard given to his brother-in-law.
Xie also had a financial motive, the trial heard, and after the murders had tried to take control of the family newsagency, the Lin’s North Epping home and two investment units.
The appeal continues."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
------------------------------------------------------------------
