PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Bromley has been in prison since 1985, having been denied parole because he has maintained his innocence throughout."
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STORY: "Derek Bromley loses final bid for freedom after nearly 40 years in South Australian jail for murder," by Australia Associated Press, published on December 13, 2023.
SUB-HEADING: "High court dismisses application to appeal conviction, despite minority of judges raising possibility he is innocent.
GIST: "A convicted murderer jailed for life for a crime he says he did not commit has lost a bid to have his case re-heard in the nation’s highest court, despite two of the judges saying there is a “significant possibility” he is innocent.
Derek John Bromley and an accomplice, John Karpany, were jailed for life for the 1984 murder of Stephen Docoza after his body was found floating in Adelaide’s River Torrens.
Since his conviction, multiple appeals have been dismissed, but Bromley has always maintained his innocence.
Bromley’s latest appeal bid, which took him to the high court, claimed testimony provided by the prosecution’s central witness, Gary Carter, was unreliable.
Fresh psychiatric and psychological evidence around Carter’s schizoaffective disorder meant there was an “extremely high likelihood” that his account of events was inaccurate, Bromley’s lawyers had argued.
But a majority of the bench – including the chief justice, Stephen Gageler, and justices Jacqueline Gleeson and Jayne Jagot – dismissed his application for special leave to appeal on Wednesday.
“The fresh psychiatric and psychological evidence was not compelling as it was not highly probative in the context of the relevant issue in dispute at trial,” the judgment said.
“That is, the reliability of Mr Carter’s evidence identifying the applicant as the man who attacked Mr Docoza on 4 April 1984.”
But in a minority judgment, justices James Edelman and Simon Steward found the appeal should have gone ahead, arguing there was “a substantial miscarriage of justice”.
The pair found the fresh evidence compelling and “plainly in the interests of justice” that it be considered on appeal.
“The minority concluded that there was a significant possibility that an innocent person had been convicted,” the judgment said.
Bromley has been in prison since 1985, having been denied parole because he has maintained his innocence throughout."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/13/derek-bromley-murder-charge-loses-high-court-bid-dismissed
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
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;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "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;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-123488014
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