Aussie wrote on May 27
th, 2008 at 8:50pm:
Rubbish, FD.
The Government has activated this pardon, not the Courts.
Ipso facto, the same Government can declare that the State murdered an innocent man, tainted his family.........and start writing cheques.
That won't take too long, and after they have done that, they can start spending money to find the real rapist/killer.
But, again.......who here still supports the death penalty?
I certainly do
not support Capital Punishment. This case is only one (of undoubtedly many) where lawyers (and the media) convinced the Jury that an innocent man was guilty. It is a very old case (he was hanged 2 weeks? after found "guilty" back in 1922).
I doubt that Ross' family wants "compensation" but if it was me who had a "murderer" in my family history when, in fact, the man was innocent, I would certainly want the records changed.
WHO did murder that kid? That is the question and I guess it is too late for her family to get answers.
By the way, did the ALP Victorian Government only "activate" the pardon because some "researcher" spent 10 or so years getting to the bottom of it? OK he wrote a book ....... Good on him!
To answer a previous question
Freediver ... about why the stuff was not opened for 75 years? ALL crime evidence is kept on "file" .... until "someone" can come up with more evidence ...... even the "Crime Squad" might review murders that are no longer current but "something" happens and they check the archives and open the file again. New ways of determining DNA has caught some who got away with it for decades! There are many unsolved murders out there!