BACKGROUND: Sue Neill-Fraser was convicted of murdering her partner Bob Chappell on Australia Day 2009, on board their yacht, Four Winds. She has maintained her innocence. She has been granted leave to appeal (in March 2019) after a three year process in which then homeless 15 year old Meaghan Vass admitted she was a witness to the murder and Neill-Fraser was not involved. Vass’ DNA was found on the deck. As per Yahoo News: 2020: Neill-Fraser is serving 23 years' jail for killing Mr Chappell on Australia Day 2009 on the couple's yacht in Hobart. Her legal team argues there is "fresh and compelling" evidence that places then-homeless teenager Meaghan Vass on board the boat the night in question.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: When she took the stand at her recent appeal, Meaghan Vass confirmed to her lawyer at the outset of her testimony that she was indeed on board the Four Winds, as her DNA showed, when and where Sue Neill-Fraser was alleged to have murdered Bob Chappell. However, under withering cross-examination she backed away from this testimony, agreeing with every proposition put to her by the prosecution that conflicted with her testimony. In an interview with Author/Blogger Andrew L. Urban (Subject of a recent post on this Blog) Meaghan Vass explained 'why'... In this follow-up post (Part Two) he explains why the entire court abandoned its duty of care to this witness.
Read 'The aftermath interview" (Part One) at:
-----------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Was it the truth that the Crown was seeking? Or to protect the conviction. I think most people know the answer. There in Hobart’s Supreme Court, the altar of justice one would think, the onus of proof was again flipped; Meaghan Vass’ evidence was required to prove Sue Neill-Fraser’s innocence. Just as it had been at trial, where in the absence of any primary evidence, Neill-Fraser was effectively required to prove her innocence. Justice was not served that day, either.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
POST: 'The aftermath interview: Meaghan Vass abandoned by the court', by author/blogger Andrew L. Urban, published by The Wrongful Convictions Report on March 27, 2021.
GIST: "Our interview with Meaghan Vass, published yesterday, answers the question why she panicked. It doesn’t explain why the entire court abandoned its duty of care to this witness.
Sue Neill-Fraser’s is arguably the most famous but least trusted murder conviction in Tasmanian legal history; and her new appeal is now in the hands of the three judges. Surely it is important to have Meaghan Vass on the public record after how the hearing ended – with her testimony excluded from the grounds of appeal. Our interview canvasses why and how that happened. One lawyer let her down, another lawyer (the DPP) brought her down.
But no lawyer in the court – and no judge, either – acknowledged that her testimony on the Tuesday – conflicting with the day before – was being given under duress. Her confidence had been betrayed – by another lawyer, and she felt her safety was at risk.
Justice was not served that day.
Was it the truth that the Crown was seeking? Or to protect the conviction. I think most people know the answer. There in Hobart’s Supreme Court, the altar of justice one would think, the onus of proof was again flipped; Meaghan Vass’ evidence was required to prove Sue Neill-Fraser’s innocence. Just as it had been at trial, where in the absence of any primary evidence, Neill-Fraser was effectively required to prove her innocence. Justice was not served that day, either.
As a key witness – THE key witness – she has been at the centre of the case from the very beginning. She made mistakes, like at first denying she had been on Four Winds at the relevant time, when she was 16. More mistakes followed, like the prosecution treating her DNA at the crime scene ‘as a red herring’.
I have argued that the trial of Sue Neil-Fraser should never have gone ahead under the circumstances, until the DNA evidence at the crime scene had been properly dealt with. Threatening to derail the prosecution’s case against Sue Neill-Fraser, it was left on the shelf…
The focus on Sue Neill-Fraser as the murderer resulted in what is – in the opinion of legal academic Dr Bob Moles of Flinders University, eminent barristers of the stature of the recently deceased Chester Porter QC (March 15, 1926 – March 15, 2021) among others – a grave and fermenting miscarriage of justice. (Porter famously assisted the Chamberlain Royal Commission and was the author of The Conviction of the Innocent – How the Law Can Let Us Down (Random House, 2007.)
The entire post - including comments on 'the aftermath interview new - can be read at:
https://wrongfulconvictionsreport.org/2021/03/27/meaghan-vass-abandoned-by-the-court/
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;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD (FOR NOW!): "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
