By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim Victorian Police have admitted a major bungle of DNA evidence that led to several key suspects being ruled out as suspects in the brutal 1980 murder of Melbourne mother Maria James. The murder investigation hinged on a bloodied pillowcase, which was used to establish the DNA profile of the ...
Category: Murder / Manslaughter
Death of Elijah Doughty: No Justice for Indigenous People
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The verdict in the trial of the Kalgoorlie man who fatally ran over Elijah Doughty in August last year, has laid bare the inherent racism in the Australian criminal justice system. Last Friday, the 56-year-old non-Indigenous man – whose identity has been suppressed by the court – was cleared of ...
A Forgotten Genocide: The Congo Free State
In the last decades of the 19th century, the European colonial powers laid claim to vast tracts of land on the African continent, expanding their spheres of influence and plundering natural resources. It’s commonly referred to today as the Scramble for Africa. At the 1884-85 Berlin conference, the European powers met to negotiate control of the continent. ...
Mystery at Sea: Australian Suspected of Murdering his Wife
In 2010, Lewis Bennet formed the company called ‘Next Generation Solar’, which was based in Mount Nathan, Queensland. The British man became an Australian citizen in September 2013 but left Australia on February 22 last year, writing on his departure card that he intended to live in England for next 12 months. Bennet is now ...
Manslaughter by Text Message
By Ugur Nedim and Zeb Holmes A US judge has found that Michelle Carter caused the death of her boyfriend Conrad Roy, by sending him a barrage of text messages urging him to kill himself. Ms Carter faces up to 20 years in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the July 2014 suicide ...
‘No Body, No Parole’ Laws: Closure for Victims or Injustice for Wrongly Convicted?
By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim As recently reported, the NSW government’s ‘justice reforms’ will include a proposal for new laws to prevent people who are convicted of murder and manslaughter from being released on parole unless they reveal the location of the deceased’s body. Victims’ groups support the laws, claiming they will force the ...
Queensland Finally Abolishes the Gay Panic Defence
It’s actually happened. Queensland has abolished gay panic defence. The Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2016 was passed in state parliament on Tuesday night, amending section 304 of the state’s Criminal Code so that an unwanted sexual advance is no longer a provocation to kill somebody. Officially known as the homosexual advancement defence, gay panic is a partial defence of provocation. ...
Aussie Mum May Appeal Sentence for Killing Balinese Policeman
In case you missed the headlines: Sara Connor has been sentenced to four years in prison, while her boyfriend, David Taylor, was handed a six year sentence for killing Balinese police officer Wayan Sudarsa. The Byron Bay mother of two was found guilty of fatal assault in company. She has already been behind bars for ...
Abortion to Remain a Crime in Queensland and NSW
By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim Welcome to Australia, 2017, where abortion is still a crime. And it will remain that way for at least another two years in Queensland after reform legislation was pulled from parliament. Independent MP Rob Pyne has withdrawn two private member’s bills he had introduced in state parliament, one of ...
Bail Laws to be Toughened in Wake of Bourke Street Tragedy
As Australia mourns the victims of a senseless tragedy, the Victorian government has vowed to make the state ‘safer’. In the wake of last Friday’s Bourke Street tragedy which killed five people including a three-month-old baby boy and a 10-year-old girl, and left 30 people seriously injured, details are emerging about the life of alleged ...