PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Shark Arm Case in 1935 is known as probably the first in which someone was charged with murder without a body, the Daily Telegraph reported. In this case, there was only the arm of the victim vomited up by a 4m tiger shark held in Coogee Aquarium Baths. It had been cut off, not bitten, and fingerprints identified it as having belonged to SP bookie James Smith. His best friend Patrick Brady was charged with murder, but the only evidence the prosecutor could present to the jury was that Smith was last seen drinking with Brady at a Cronulla pub and that he had told police a stack of lies about his whereabouts and movements. The judge directed the jury to acquit."
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NETWORKED KNOWLEDGE MEDIA REPORT: (This page set up by Dr Robert N. Moles;)
GIST: "On 2 March 2016 News.com reported ‘No body’ murder convictions prompt calls for shake up of Australia’s legal system. (Megan Palin: "A spate of "no body murder convictions' prompted calls for a shake up of Australia's legal system.)
No body. None of that matters when it comes to a “no body” murder conviction if the offender’s guilt can be determined by circumstantial or forensic evidence.
But the nature of the conviction doesn’t come without controversy and has
significantly contributed to the emergence of innocence projects in Australia.
The parents of murderer Keli Lane appeared on 60 Minutes on Sunday to speak publicly for the first time, about what they said was their daughter’s wrong conviction.
Lane was convicted of murdering her two-day-old baby daughter within hours of leaving hospital in 1996.
She secretly gave birth to three babies, adopted two of them out and told police she gave Tegan to her natural father, Andrew Morris or Norris, who police found did not exist.
Tegan’s body has never been found.
The family’s story is one of many relating to high profile ‘no body convictions’ in Australia.
In 2010, Susan Blyth Neill-Fraser was jailed for life in Hobart for the murder of her de facto partner of 18 years, Bob Chappell.
Chappell, 65, was about to retire as the Royal Hobart Hospital’s chief radiation physicist when he went missing from the couple’s yacht Four
Winds while sailing off Hobart on Australia Day 2009.
The judge said Neill-Fraser killed him for money.
She was jailed for 26 years with an 18-year non-parole period.
Chappell’s body has never been found and Neill-Fraser maintains her innocence.
Criminal lawyer Barbara Etter — who represents Neill-Fraser — told news.com.au
Australia’s legal system was in need of a shake up.
She said “right to appeal” provisions were inconsistent in Australia and that an independent Criminal Cases Review Commission, similar to one in the UK, needed to be introduced.
“New Innocence Projects are emerging here in Australia, but appealing a murder conviction, particularly after normal appeal avenues have failed, continues to be a David v Goliath battle,” Ms Etter said.
In circumstances where appeals have been exhausted and “fresh and compelling evidence emerges”, the only way to get the matter back in court, in most cases, is to appeal to the executive under a petition for mercy.
“That can be problematic and not as transparent,” Ms Etter said.
NSW, “unlike South Australia and Tasmania”, does not have legislation that
allows for a second or subsequent appeal where there is fresh and compelling evidence, according to Ms Etter.
“It would seem that there would be benefit in having some consistency in the current appeal provisions throughout Australia,” she said.
Ms Etter said there was a growing concern about miscarriage of justice cases because of an increase of exonerations in the US and public debate surrounding the US case of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, who
featured on the Netflix docu-series Making a Murderer.
She said Australia needed “to look at other mechanisms to enable those who may have been wrongfully convicted to get their matters back before the court in a reasonable time frame”.
Lindy Chamberlain was at the centre of what is arguably Australia’s most famous ‘no body conviction’ case.
Chamberlain was jailed for the murder of her infant daughter, Azaria, and later acquitted when evidence was found that proved her story about a dingo taking her baby.
Chamberlain is believed to be the only person convicted of a murder without a body to have their conviction overturned.
The Shark Arm Case in 1935 is known as probably the first in which someone was charged with murder without a body, the Daily Telegraph reported.
In this case, there was only the arm of the victim vomited up by a 4m tiger shark held in Coogee Aquarium Baths.
It had been cut off, not bitten, and fingerprints identified it as having belonged to SP bookie James Smith.
His best friend Patrick Brady was charged with murder, but the only evidence the prosecutor could present to the jury was that Smith was last seen drinking with Brady at a Cronulla pub and that he had told police a stack of lies about his whereabouts and movements.
The judge directed the jury to acquit.
Brady has since died.
Other cases of ‘no body convictions’ where the bodies are still missing:
Convicted: Bradley John Murdoch. Victim: Peter Falconio.
British tourist Peter Falconio, 28, disappeared in 2001 while driving with girlfriend Joanne Lees in their Kombi van on the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek in the Northern Territory. Lees said they were flagged down by a man who shot Peter dead and kidnapped her before she escaped.
Murdoch, 52, was convicted in 2006 and jailed for life. Falconio’s body has never been found.
The case inspired the movie Wolf Creek.
Convicted: Paul Wilkinson. Victim: Kylie Labouchardiere. Labouchardiere, 23, arrived in Sydney with two packed suitcases for what she thought would be a new life with her married lover Paul Wilkinson.
Instead of leaving his wife, Wilkinson, 34, murdered Kylie in April 2004 and later tried to cover his tracks by burning down the rental house he shared with his
wife.
He was jailed last year for 28 years, with a minimum 24. Kylie’s body has never been found.
Convicted: Sudo Cavkic, Costas Athanasi and Julian Michael Clarke. Victim: Keith William Allan. Cavkic, Athanasi and Clarke were found guilty in 2007, after a third trial, of the contract killing of Allan, 53, who disappeared in May 2000.
Clarke, a law clerk in Allan’s Avondale Heights office, took up to $560,000 from a trust account to finance his gambling and that of his partner and another associate.
To stop Allan finding out, he procured Athanasi to recruit a killer, and Cavkic was brought in. Allan’s body has never been found.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/no-body-murder-convictions-prompt-calls-for-shake-up-of-australias-legal-system/news-
story/d19968b5c570d5e01a412663cba82215
The entire Media Report can be read at:
http://netk.net.au/NSW/NSW28.pdf
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("Megan Palin is an award-winning Australian journalist and US Correspondent based in New York. She has covered stories ranging from the 2020 US presidential election and the coronavirus pandemic to the Harvey Weinstein trial and the Lindt Cafe siege Inquest. Megan was highly commended as Journalist of the Year at the national Mumbrella Publish Awards for leading investigations into Australian Federal Police suicides; human trafficking in the US; and for an expose on a serial rapist. She also won a News Feature Writer of the Year award and was a national finalist for Outstanding News reporting.")
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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;
