Re: Dando killer wins right to appeal


"The Todal" <deadmailbox@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Dave Baker" <nothing@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Paul Nutteing (valid email address in post script )"
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IMO the major flaw with the Jill Dando/Barry George
conviction was the "gun propllant" evidence. I'm
surprised Michael Mansfield QC did not show the jury a representative
7 micron particle. 7 thousandths of a mm across, you need
a pretty good microscope to see it. The original was consumed
in the gas chromatograph or mass spectrograph or whatever.
Only ONE particle landing on a jacket worn within a foot
of the shooting with no evidence of it being cleaned in the
intervening months. The source of this particle was more than
likely from when the jacket was removed from the exhibits
bag to be photographed . The previous week on the same
bench firearms had been photographed for forensic
purposes. Barry George's jacket was then rebagged and
sent to another lab for the chemical analysis. Only shown
to be chemically consistent with gun propellant, nothing
more identifying than that. ...

Moreover the BBC (IIRC) has now done much of the work that Mansfield
should have done in the first place by showing the American lab reports
on how easy it is to get inadvertent contamination with particles that
small and how they would never be used in evidence in a case over there.

That isn't really very fair on Mansfield. The defence called a reputable
expert to rubbish the particle and the Court of Appeal eventually decided
it was fair to put the evidence before a jury and allow the jury to decide
what weight to attribute to it.


In addition there are witnesses, one of them a vicar I believe, saying
that some of the police who went into George's house were armed which it
appears the police lied about in the trial. Add in all the other dubious
factors in this case and I would hope that even the most inept defence
barrister can now finally get him released.

If the BBC report is correct, the *only* issue before the Court of Appeal
this time around, will be the reliability of the particle evidence.


Why though does it take so long for such obviously suspect cases to win
their right to appeal. The system still tries desperately to maintain the
impression that it can do no wrong when it clearly fails defendants time
and again.

I agree. However, that is the problem that always comes up with jury
trials. You put all the evidence before a jury, you explain to them how
flimsy the evidence is, and they sometimes come up with the wrong answer:
guilty.


It seems to be a fact that whenever a firearm is involved, the jury somehow
lean towards a guilty verdict. Some years ago, a fellow member of my pistol
club was charged with a firearms offence where there was absolutely no
evidence at all. It was clear that the police were relying entirely on jury
prejudice. It never got that far - the judge ruled that there was no case
to answer as soon as the prosecution had finished and even had a a few
choice words for the police (who were there) and for the magistrates who
committed the case for trial in the first place (who weren't there).


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Dando killer wins right to appeal
    ... conviction was the "gun propllant" evidence. ... Only ONE particle landing on a jacket worn within a foot ... Moreover the BBC has now done much of the work that Mansfield ... was fair to put the evidence before a jury and allow the jury to decide what ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Dando killer wins right to appeal
    ... small and how they would never be used in evidence in a case over there. ... it was fair to put the evidence before a jury and allow the jury to decide ... serious cases end up in court on the flimsiest of evidence and minor cases ... Some fairly meaningless particle evidence and some ...
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