PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In a nutshell, the term 'verballing' refers to the police practice of fabricating or misrepresenting a suspect's statements to make it appear as if a confession was made, even if it never occurred. HL;
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Of course, none of this proves conclusively that Jamieson was verballed. What it does do, surely, is strengthen the case for review of his conviction, to be made again in coming weeks. Jamieson’s 1990 jury reached their verdict on the basis of testimony that has been acknowledged to be inaccurate, under legal procedures that have been acknowledged to be deeply flawed. As long ago as 1989, a Queensland inquiry made a recommendation that resonates beyond state borders: special consideration be given for a review of the convictions of any individuals who have raised allegations of “verballing” […] who are still in prison. More to the story? It’s comfortable to think the possibility of verballing died with mandatory electronic recording. But it lives on for those convicted under pre-1995 rules. It also survives in legal procedures that still allow juries to be misled by inaccurately transcribed confessions."
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STORY: "New linguistic research casts doubt on decades-old murder conviction, published by The Conversation, on October 30, 2025. The Conversation promise 'academic rigour, journalistic flair.'
GIST: On September 8 1988, 20-year-old Janine Balding was abducted, raped, and brutally murdered in New South Wales. Police quickly arrested four youths, who accused an older man nicknamed “Shorty”.
Two weeks later, police interviewed Stephen “Shorty” Jamieson. Within a few hours, they had a full confession, typed by one of the detectives, and signed by Jamieson as a “record of interview” given of his own free will.
But when Jamieson arrived at his committal hearing, the youths called out to authorities: “you’ve got the wrong Shorty!”. It seems they had been referring to another man, also nicknamed Shorty, known to wear a black bandanna similar to the one used to gag the victim.
Nevertheless, Jamieson’s trial continued. In June 1990, he was convicted, along with two of the youths, and sentenced to life in prison. There he remains to this day, despite longstanding efforts by solicitor Peter Breen to have his conviction reviewed.
Recent hearings have focused on DNA analysis of the black bandanna. Our new linguistics research casts doubt on the confession that convicted Jamieson.
Confessions as legal gospel
It’s important to be clear that while the other two were convicted on the basis of substantial evidence of guilt (which both later admitted), Jamieson’s conviction depended wholly on the confession transcribed by police.
Nowadays, police interviews must be electronically recorded. At the time of Jamieson’s trial, a verbal confession could be admitted as a typed “record of interview”.
However, the risk of “verballing” (police faking a confession that was never really made) was already well known.
Jamieson’s lawyers opposed the transcript vigorously during the trial, but the detectives testified it was accurate:
Defence lawyer: You see there is a very lengthy answer there that goes on for something in excess of half a page?
Detective: Yes.
Lawyer: Are you saying that those words were recorded exactly as Jamieson said it?
Detective: Yes, I am saying that.
Lawyer: You did not need to prompt him in any way?
Detective: No
Lawyer: Didn’t need to remind him about anything?
Detective: No. I did not.
In convicting Jamieson, the jury must have been persuaded by the detectives’ strong testimony.
A 1992 appeal was unsuccessful. The defence had one last hope: official review of the conviction.
Just the ‘gist’
A 2001 application to review Jamieson’s conviction included linguistic analysis by Rod Gardner (one of the authors of this piece), who compared the 1988 police transcript to a professional transcript of another interview with Jamieson, audio-recorded in 1995.
Finding many differences, Gardner concluded:
it is extremely unlikely that [the police transcript] is an accurate record of what would have been said in a police interview with Jamieson.
However, Justice Bruce James rejected the application, dismissing Gardner’s conclusion. He acknowledged the transcript was not Jamieson’s exact words, but thought it captured the gist of a genuine confession. Any inaccuracies simply reflected the detective typist’s “limited proficiency”.
He even excused the detective’s strong testimony, saying it was merely “an emphatic denial” of the defence suggestion, during cross-examination, that police “had concocted the whole interview”.
Confession or construction?
The Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence has undertaken a fresh analysis of Jamieson’s case.
This asked if the detectives could have transcribed even the gist of an interview in real time, as they claimed.
A new experiment simulating their task suggests not. It used the video of a recent (unrelated) police interview. Participants had to type as much as they could of a three minute clip, without pausing.
All participants were fast typists. Average speed was 68 words per minute – well into the professional typing range. One live-captioning expert managed an astonishing 142 words per minute.
Nevertheless, their average accuracy was only 34%, compared to the reference transcript.
Importantly, those who typed around 40 words per minute (surely the most Jamieson’s transcriber could claim, given his “limited proficiency”) averaged a mere 20% accuracy. That’s hardly the “gist” of an interview.
What does this mean for the 1990 trial?
The detectives, under oath, told the jury the transcript captured the confession “exactly as Jamieson said it”. Our research really questions whether that claim can possibly be true.
Many assume Jamieson’s signature proves the confession was genuine, if not exact. However, flaws in this assumption were clear as far back as 1987. According to the Australian Law Reform Commission:
just as oppressive conduct can cause a suspect to make false admissions, so it can cause a suspect to sign a document containing those admissions.
This was one reason behind 1995 legislation introducing compulsory electronic recording of interviews. By then, it had been officially acknowledged at the highest levels that admitting an unverified transcript risks verballing.
Jamieson’s interview was completely unverified. He was alone with the detectives until a Justice of the Peace came to read the record of interview back to him (he couldn’t read at the time), and witness him signing his “voluntary” confession (which he withdrew as soon as the interview was over).
Where to from here?
Of course, none of this proves conclusively that Jamieson was verballed.
What it does do, surely, is strengthen the case for review of his conviction, to be made again in coming weeks.
Jamieson’s 1990 jury reached their verdict on the basis of testimony that has been acknowledged to be inaccurate, under legal procedures that have been acknowledged to be deeply flawed.
As long ago as 1989, a Queensland inquiry made a recommendation that resonates beyond state borders: special consideration be given for a review of the convictions of any individuals who have raised allegations of “verballing” […] who are still in prison.
More to the story?
It’s comfortable to think the possibility of verballing died with mandatory electronic recording. But it lives on for those convicted under pre-1995 rules.
It also survives in legal procedures that still allow juries to be misled by inaccurately transcribed confessions.
The entire story can be read at:
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THE AUTHORS:
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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