PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In 2017, during an appeal to overturn Bromley’s conviction, a court heard the bruises on Mr. Docoza could have been sustained after he went into the river. “There is nothing to distinguish whether he was alive or not when he went in the water,” Dr Matthew Lynch from the Victorian Institute for Forensic Medicine told the court. Bromley has continually denied his involvement in the murder and last year lost another bid to have his conviction overturned. The court ruled Bromley’s challenges to the mental capacity, and therefore reliability, of a prosecution witness was neither “compelling nor probative” enough to warrant a new trial."
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NETWORKED KNOWLEDGE MEDIA REPORT: "Macca’s run as fight goes on." July 2024; Eva Blandis; The Advertiser.
GIST: "A convicted killer has been released from jail after serving more than 40 years for a murder he says he did not commit – and headed straight to Macca’s for a coffee.
Derek John Bromley, the longest-serving Indigenous prisoner in the country, was jailed for life after he was found guilty of the murder of Stephen Docoza in 1984.
The Parole Board approved the 68-year-old Narungga Ngarrindjeri man’s fifth parole request in March.
The family of Mr Docoza declined to comment on Bromley’s release but said they wanted the public to know Stephen was a “hardworking, kind and loving man”, releasing new pictures of the murdered man.
Bromley, now 68, went to McDonald’s for a coffee to celebrate his release, accompanied by his partner Robyn Milera, upper house MP Frank Pangallo and former 7News Adelaide boss Graham Archer, who is writing a book about him.
Bromley and his co-accused John Karpany were sentenced to life in prison for the murder ofMr Docoza after the man’s body was found floating in the River Torrens in April 1984.
From the outset, police reported Mr Docoza had been beaten and drowned after an altercation when Bromley asked him for sex.
Bromley was given a non-parole period of 32 years, the second longest in the state’s history at the time, and Karpany 28 years. Ms Milera told The Advertiser Bromley plans to exercise the basic rights of freedom – especially engaging in outdoor activities.
“We are very relieved Derek has been given a chance to get on with his life,” she said. “He’s looking forward to doing things like walking along the beach (and) visiting culturally significant places to his family … and spending time with family and friends.”
Ms Milera said he was planning to continue working and contributing to society.
Mr Pangallo referred to Bromley’s release as “significant”.
“It was disgraceful he was in there for so long,” he said. “He’s still determined to prove he didn’t commit the murder … he was a model prisoner and I’m sure he’ll be a model citizen.
“He should never have been convicted.” Mr Pangallo said Bromley was planning to continue working to help Indigenous people in the prison system. He said the conviction was a “miscarriage of justice” and called on the state government to impose a criminal cases review commission.
Bromley petitioned for retrial in 2006 on the grounds the evidence of the eyewitness was not corroborated, another identification witness had erred and Karpany changed his account, saying Bromley wasn’t present on the night of the murder.
Parole Board chairwoman Frances Nelson KC said a decision was made last week for Bromley’s release on Wednesday and he would live at the pre-release centre for an unfixed period of time. “It has to be a staged process; he’s been locked up for a very long time,” she said.
While in custody, Bromley was implicated in a riot at Yatala Labor Prison in 1987, for which he was later awarded $7000 in damages for injuries sustained at the hands of the Corrections department.
In 2017, during an appeal to overturn Bromley’s conviction, a court heard the bruises on Mr. Docoza could have been sustained after he went into the river.
“There is nothing to distinguish whether he was alive or not when he went in the water,” Dr Matthew Lynch from the Victorian Institute for Forensic Medicine told the court.
Bromley has continually denied his involvement in the murder and last year lost another bid to have his conviction overturned.
The court ruled Bromley’s challenges to the mental capacity, and therefore reliability, of a prosecution witness was neither “compelling nor probative” enough to warrant a new trial.
Corrections department staff had previously praised Mr Bromley for his volunteer work while in custody, with the now 68-year-old working as a firefighter with the Country Fire Service for a decade and helping battle the bushfires at Cudlee Creek and Kangaroo Island in 2019.-"
The entire story can be read on Networked Knowledge at:
http://netk.net.au/Bromley/Bromley76.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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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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;