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Death Penalty (Read 8549 times)
Aussie
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Death Penalty
May 27th, 2008 at 12:31pm
 
Bugger the death penalty!!!

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/10/22/1161455608834.html

Pardon given. 

It ought be exoneration, not a pardon.  Ross did not do it.
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #1 - May 27th, 2008 at 12:34pm
 
Would it make any difference?

The article:

THE State Government has begun legal proceedings to pardon a man hanged in Melbourne 84 years ago for a murder he almost certainly did not commit.

Fresh evidence suggests that Colin Campbell Ross, who was executed for the 1921 killing of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke — in the infamous Gun Alley murder — was innocent, as he had always claimed.

Attorney-General Rob Hulls has written to Chief Justice Marilyn Warren asking her to consider a plea of mercy for Ross. It is the first time in Victoria's history that a posthumous pardon may be offered.

The unprecedented move comes after legal experts at the Justice Department examined a 31-page petition of mercy, signed by relatives of both the victim and the man convicted of her murder.

Mr Hulls has concluded that there is sufficient doubt about the verdict to warrant a new Supreme Court ruling.

Hawthorn schoolgirl Alma Tirtschke was raped and strangled while in the city running errands for her mother. Her naked body was found by a bottle gatherer in Gun Alley, off Little Collins Street, on December 31.

Ross, who ran a nearby wine bar, was arrested at his Maidstone home on January 12. After a short trial and two failed appeals, he was executed 115 days after the murder.

Prosecutors claimed that Ross, 28, lured Alma into his wine saloon in the Eastern Arcade in Bourke Street, took her into a small room off the main bar, then plied her with alcohol before he raped and strangled her. The court was told Ross then put her body in a nearby laneway, where it was found the next morning.

However, Ross was able to produce alibi witnesses who said they saw him at work and on the tram heading home at the time of the murder.

The key evidence against him was given by two contradictory and unreliable "witnesses" — prostitute Ivy Matthews and career thief Sydney John Harding, who claimed Ross independently "confessed" to the murder.

But the petition of mercy says the prosecution failed to tell the court that Harding was a known and repeated perjurer. The Crown was aware that his military record included convictions for making a false statement to a superior officer and giving false sworn answers on his attestation papers.

The only forensic link came from hairs found on a blanket discovered at Ross' home, which were said to match hairs taken from the victim.

Government analyst Charles Price, a chemist by occupation and not a forensic expert, gave evidence that the hairs "were derived from the scalp of one and the same person".
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #2 - May 27th, 2008 at 1:27pm
 
We MUST have a labor govt to squander resources on such a pointless exercise.
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #3 - May 27th, 2008 at 1:46pm
 
There was a book about this called Gun Alley: Murder, Lies and Failure of Justice and an article about it in the Age back in 2005.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/wrong-man-hanged/2005/07/08/1120704555156.ht...
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #4 - May 27th, 2008 at 1:59pm
 
FD wrote:

Quote:
Would it make any difference?


Yes, a HUGE difference.  A pardon is extended to a person who is acknowledged as having done something untoward as a statement that the person is forgiven, pardoned.

It ought be publicly stated that Ross NEVER committed the offence, the conviction must be stricken from judicial records, and replaced with a statement of the man's absolute innocence.
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #5 - May 27th, 2008 at 2:10pm
 
But you can't exonerate someone without a trial. Given that he is dead, a pardon is probably the best they can do. In fact, it alone will be unique. In all practical measures it will mean the same thing. However, the evidence is now too flimsy to make a ruling either way. An exoneration so long after the fact would be hollow and meaningless.

Did they wait until all the crown prosecutors were dead or something? I'd image there would have been a strong case to put them on trial if they mislead the court.
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #6 - May 27th, 2008 at 2:13pm
 
I agree, Aussie.  Then there is the important fact that the descendents of Ross and the murdered child, Alma, need to have this put on the record too. Although it happened 86 years ago, it's in their family history and should be fixed.

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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #7 - May 27th, 2008 at 2:20pm
 
freediver wrote on May 27th, 2008 at 2:10pm:
Did they wait until all the crown prosecutors were dead or something? I'd image there would have been a strong case to put them on trial if they mislead the court.


Follow the link I posted!  "Researcher Kevin Morgan's Gun Alley: Murder, Lies and Failure of Justice, to be launched on Monday, explains how public hysteria, media criticism of police and politicians, and the testimony of unreliable witnesses conspired to assure Ross' hanging.

Morgan exposes serious flaws in the prosecution case and concludes that were the case to be tried today, Ross could not be convicted.

He spent many hours over the past decade scrutinising documents, some sealed for 75 years. He says Ross' death was an expedience to quell a baying city spooked by the 12-year-old Alma's death."


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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #8 - May 27th, 2008 at 2:22pm
 
Does it explain why they were sealed?
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #9 - May 27th, 2008 at 2:24pm
 
freediver wrote on May 27th, 2008 at 2:22pm:
Does it explain why they were sealed?


Buy the book.  Tongue You could use Wiki and search for Colin Campbell Ross ... an article on there.  Grin

PS  I post links as a "hyperlink" (using the thingie above the B for bold) so that you can just point to it and go directly to the link, no cutting and pasting! Wink
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #10 - May 27th, 2008 at 2:35pm
 
it'll make no difference at all.
he may have well been guilty anyway.
just opening the old healed wounds of the victims relatives too.

As useful as saying sorry to the aborigines. What did that do ??

ALp fluff and pillowbiting
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #11 - May 27th, 2008 at 3:27pm
 
Sprintcyclist wrote on May 27th, 2008 at 2:35pm:
it'll make no difference at all.
he may have well been guilty anyway.
just opening the old healed wounds of the victims relatives too.

As useful as saying sorry to the aborigines. What did that do ??

ALp fluff and pillowbiting


The Supreme Court of Victoria have given him a pardon - apparently a first.

Kevin Morgan the author of the book did a lot of reseach and eventually the files were re-opened after 75 years and DNA on the strands of hair evidence proved that he could not have committed the crime.  The man was innocent.  He has living rellies (as does the murdered girl).  It's probably called "closure" or something.  The guy was hanged for something he didn't do.  A bit late for saying sorry, but what the heck.  Huh

The real murderer got off scott free.

I don't think it has much to do with the ALP.  Wink
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #12 - May 27th, 2008 at 3:30pm
 
Sprintcyclist wrote on May 27th, 2008 at 2:35pm:
it'll make no difference at all.
he may have well been guilty anyway.
just opening the old healed wounds of the victims relatives too.

As useful as saying sorry to the aborigines. What did that do ??

ALp fluff and pillowbiting


In fact, the victims family never, ever believed Ross had done it.
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #13 - May 27th, 2008 at 4:31pm
 
Here is some more about what a "pardon" means.




Victoria Attorney-General Rob Hulls said in a statement Tuesday that he referred the petition to the Supreme Court of Victoria and received an opinion "that there had been a miscarriage of justice in Mr. Ross' case."

"A pardon is not the same thing as a declaration of innocence," Hulls said. "In the circumstances of the case a retrial is not possible. A pardon is recorded against the conviction in recognition that the State forgives the legal consequences of the crime."

Tirtschke's niece, Bettye Arthur, was pleased with the pardon.


Why can't the Government take the obvious step and declare the bloke innocent.

So what if they get sued somehow....they deserve to be.

What a tragedy!!

Smiley
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Re: Death Penalty
Reply #14 - May 27th, 2008 at 4:32pm
 
Why can't the Government take the obvious step and declare the bloke innocent.

Separation of powers. You can declare him innocent if it makes you feel better.
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