Category Archives: Democracy and Justice

Tasmanian Attorney General the Hon Vanessa Goodwin is making good on her promise to introduce legislation to amend and improve the Criminal Code to enable persons convicted of serious crimes further right to appeal their convictions. On the invitation of … Continue reading →

By Andrew L. Urban. We must respect the sovereignity of other states as we expect them to respect ours, goes the argument against criticism of Indonesia’s death penalty for drug smugglers. Really? Is that like a blanket cone of silence … Continue reading →

By Andrew L. Urban.  First published in The Australian, 25/3/2015 as “Justice cast to the four winds” (p. 11) Sue Neill-Fraser was convicted of murder in 2010, after her partner of 18 years, Bob Chappell, disappeared from their jointly owned … Continue reading →

By Andrew L. Urban With the death penalty hanging over two Australians (and a number of others) in Indonesia convicted of heroin smuggling as I write (12/3/2015), the state sanctioned killing of criminals has generated much debate and vitriol – … Continue reading →

Examples of senior legal practitioners disregarding the law and not being held accountable for it is evident in Australia’s criminal legal system writes Andrew L. Urban. The judges of the South Australian court of criminal appeal have accepted that Henry … Continue reading →

“ … we conclude that the applicant has established that a substantial miscarriage of justice has occurred.” Andrew L. Urban reports. When Henry Keogh walked out of jail just in time for Christmas 2014, he had served 10 extra years … Continue reading →

By Andrew L. Urban It took just one hour for the first 600 people to register a ‘Like’ on the newly launched facebook page titled ‘We want Tim Ellis fired’ on December 23, 2014, immediately after Ellis was given a … Continue reading →

Until 4pm in Adelaide on Friday December 19, 2014, Henry Keogh was a convicted murderer, as he had been for almost 20 years, since his 1995 trial for the murder of his 29 year old fiancée Anna-Jane Cheney. They were … Continue reading →

A lone gunman later identified as Man Haron Monis held 17 hostages at gunpoint in the Lindt café in central Sydney on December 16, 2014; in the end he shot dead two of the hostages before police shot him. Among … Continue reading →

“Bureaucratic madness” is denying a dying man his legal rights to an appeal so he can clear his name of a murder conviction. By Andrew L. Urban. On December 19, 2014, it’ll be 35 years since the day David Szach … Continue reading →