PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Dr Moles said the High Court case had been argued on the accuracy of the main witness who led to the prosecutions but a second, related, issue was still hanging over the killing. This was the role of former chief forensic pathologist Colin Manock, whose work over 27 years as South Australia’s top forensic pathologist led to thousands of autopsies and giving evidence in hundreds of court cases. As well as his being under-qualified for the role, there have been many questions raised about Dr Manock’s work. “This is really a big ticket item,’’ Dr. Moles said. “He never should have done autopsies.” Independent state MP Frank Pangallo, who has championed Bromley’s cause, is convinced he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Mr Pangallo has visited him in jail several times and believes he should have been released many years ago. “It’s just scandalous. He should have been out 13 or 14 years ago,’’ he said. Mr Pangallo also said there should be an inquiry into Dr Manock’s work and whether it had contaminated a vast number of cases. “There must be either a royal commission or an independent judicial review into the state-sanctioned conduct of Dr Manock,’’ he said. “He was the crown’s expert witness in hundreds of criminal cases when the state knew he was unqualified to give that evidence. “This is truly shocking; jurists around the world have been alarmed by what went on in South Australia unchecked.”
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MEDIA REPORT: NETWORKED KNOWLEDGE: On December 10, 2023, The Australian: John Ferguson; D-Day after 39 years in jail for river killing;
GIST: "A jailed Aboriginal man will learn this week
"Adelaide man Derek John Bromley, 67, has been in jail since 1984 for the murder of Stephen Docoza, 21, whose decomposed body was found floating in Adelaide’s River Torrens that same year.
Bromley was sentenced to 36 years’ jail, subsequently reduced to 24 years, but he has remained inside because of his insistence he never committed the crime. This has rendered him ineligible for parole since 2006.
Bromley and his off-sider John Karpany were found guilty of bludgeoning Docoza to death, allegedly after he refused their sexual advances at what was then a gay beat on the banks of the same river where academic George Duncan was killed in a gay hate crime and his body found in the water in 1972.
The High Court will on Wednesday pass judgment on the case, which many of Bromley’s supporters believe will be his last chance of total freedom.
Legal academic and researcher Bob Moles said the High Court had several options with the leave to appeal yet to have been granted.
Dr Moles said if leave were granted, this could trigger several options including the possibility that Bromley, a trusted volunteer firefighter despite being imprisoned in a low security system, could be freed.
He said the hope was that leave to appeal would be granted and his conviction was set aside.
"Dr Moles said the High Court case had been argued on the accuracy of the main witness who led to the prosecutions but a second, related, issue was still hanging over the killing.
This was the role of former chief forensic pathologist Colin Manock, whose work over 27 years as South Australia’s top forensic pathologist led to thousands of autopsies and giving evidence in hundreds of court cases.
As well as his being under-qualified for the role, there have been many questions raised about Dr Manock’s work.
“This is really a big ticket item,’’ Dr Moles said. “He never should have done autopsies.”
Independent state MP Frank Pangallo, who has championed Bromley’s cause, is convinced he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Pangallo has visited him in jail several times and believes he should have been released many years ago.
“It’s just scandalous. He should have been out 13 or 14 years ago,’’ he said.
Mr Pangallo also said there should be an inquiry into Dr Manock’s work and whether it had contaminated a vast number of cases.
“There must be either a royal commission or an independent judicial review into the state-sanctioned conduct of Dr Manock,’’ he said. “He was the crown’s expert witness in hundreds of criminal cases when the state knew he was unqualified to give that evidence. “This is truly shocking; jurists around the world have been alarmed by what went on in South Australia unchecked.”
Bromley and Karpany were accused of bludgeoning Docoza to death with a dumbbell in an attempted rape at what for many years was a late-night gay beat on the banks of the Torrens.
They both insist they had no dealings with Docoza on the night and that he may have died from natural causes.
The witness in the Bromley case was suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was having audible and visual hallucinations on the night of Docoza’s death, and had described himself to police as “the king of Adelaide” while falsely claiming to be an A-grade state footballer.
The entire Media Report can be read at:
http://netk.net.au/Bromley/Bromley61.pdf
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
