"PUBLISHER'S NOTE: WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING; CALIFORNIA: (Applicable wherever a state resists DNA testing): "Blogger/extraordinaire Jeff Gamso's blunt, unequivocal, unforgettable message to the powers that be in California: "JUST TEST THE FUCKING DNA." (Oh yes, Gamso raises, as he does in many of his posts, an important philosophical question: This post is headed: "What is truth, said jesting Pilate."...Says Gamso: "So what's the harm? What, exactly, are they scared of? Don't we want the truth?")
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Harrison directed the attorney-general to file written submissions by May 8 in response to Jamieson’s application for an inquiry. The parties return to court on May 13. The judge said the “theoretical question” to be answered in those submissions was “why shouldn’t Mr Jamieson, and indeed the public generally, be entitled to understand what a comparison between the bandana and Mr Wells’ DNA might produce, if anything”. Post-conviction inquiries have been ordered in two cases in NSW in recent years, including in the case of Kathleen Folbigg, whose convictions over the deaths of her four young children have since been quashed by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. Jamieson has spent 34 years behind bars."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Breen told the court that “the laboratories in Australia aren’t good enough to test the bandana in the way it needs to be tested”. Harrison replied: “I think those are matters that will form a significant part of matters that are a bit down the track. I know that you say that New Zealand has the jump on us in that respect.”
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "The judge noted Breen also contended Jamieson could not have authored a confession used against him because he was a man with “limited ability to read or write” and the confession “bespeaks stylistic aspects that make it clear he ... could not have been the author of that confession”. Harrison told Breen he was “somewhat encouraging you to put that [argument] on hold, keep your powder dry as it were”, as a number of matters could be examined if the application for an inquiry was successful."
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STORY: "DNA evidence may cast doubt on conviction in Janine Balding murder, court told," by Reporters Legal Reporter Michaela Whitbourne and Court Reporter Sarah McPhee, published by The Sydney Morning Herald, on March 28, 2024.
GIST: "The NSW Supreme Court is set to rule on whether an inquiry should be held into the decades-old conviction of one of three homeless youths jailed over the savage 1988 rape and murder of Janine Balding in Sydney, amid questions about whether DNA evidence may create doubt about his guilt.
Stephen Wayne “Shorty” Jamieson, now 58, was convicted in 1990 over the abduction, rape and murder of Balding on September 8, 1988, along with Bronson Matthew Blessington and Matthew James Elliott. Jamieson was 22 at the time, while Blessington and Elliott were 14 and 16 respectively.
The 20-year-old’s abduction from Sutherland station and murder in Minchinbury shocked Sydneysiders and devastated Balding’s family.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Newman jailed the trio for life and recommended they should never be released. This recommendation had no legal effect, but retrospective legislation passed in NSW in 1997, 2001 and 2005 gave it force.
At a hearing in the Supreme Court in Sydney on Wednesday, Justice Ian Harrison said that Jamieson, via his lawyer and longtime supporter, former NSW upper house MP Peter Breen, had sought a suite of orders in proceedings against the state attorney-general.
One of those orders was for an inquiry into his conviction.
DNA analysis of bandana
Harrison said Jamieson asserted he was “not present at the scene in September 1988 and … by reason of his nickname, he may well have been mistaken for some other person, in this case, Mr [Mark ‘Shorty’] Wells, whose custom was to wear a bandana in the style of that found at the scene”.
“As a purely hypothetical theoretical matter, the detection on that bandana of Mr Wells’ DNA, if that turned out to be the fact, to use as neutral an expression as I can, on your case, would raise a question or doubt about his conviction,” Harrison said.
“That’s correct, Your Honour,” Breen said.
Harrison made clear that the outcome of any such analysis, and “the consequences of it, if it were to occur, necessarily remain to be seen”.
Breen has consistently campaigned for Jamieson’s freedom and raised questions about DNA evidence in the past, raising the ire of the Balding family.
In an interview from prison in 2016, Blessington told The Sydney Morning Herald: “Jamo [Jamieson] wasn’t even there.” David Balding, Janine’s younger brother, said at the time that he believed Blessington was lying.
Harrison directed the attorney-general to file written submissions by May 8 in response to Jamieson’s application for an inquiry. The parties return to court on May 13.
The judge said the “theoretical question” to be answered in those submissions was “why shouldn’t Mr Jamieson, and indeed the public generally, be entitled to understand what a comparison between the bandana and Mr Wells’ DNA might produce, if anything”.
Post-conviction inquiries have been ordered in two cases in NSW in recent years, including in the case of Kathleen Folbigg, whose convictions over the deaths of her four young children have since been quashed by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. Jamieson has spent 34 years behind bars.
Australian testing may be insufficient
Breen told the court that “the laboratories in Australia aren’t good enough to test the bandana in the way it needs to be tested”.
Harrison replied: “I think those are matters that will form a significant part of matters that are a bit down the track. I know that you say that New Zealand has the jump on us in that respect.”
Questions about confession
The judge noted Breen also contended Jamieson could not have authored a confession used against him because he was a man with “limited ability to read or write” and the confession “bespeaks stylistic aspects that make it clear he ... could not have been the author of that confession”.
Harrison told Breen he was “somewhat encouraging you to put that [argument] on hold, keep your powder dry as it were”, as a number of matters could be examined if the application for an inquiry was successful.
Breen said he believed a Police Integrity Commission report into the criminal investigation, which had never been released, could also be made public in an inquiry.
The office of Attorney-General Michael Daley has been contacted for comment."
The entire story can be read at:
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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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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-12348801
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MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett; X March 1, 2024.
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