It's murder in Canberra...

[Gob]

..getting a murder conviction.

Don't believe me?

"The Downer murders of 2008" claimed the lives of Struan Bolas and Julie Franco, who were killed and their house set on fire in Downer.

The Canberra Times reports that Scott Alexander McDougall has this morning been found guilty of both the murders by Justice Malcolm Gray, the first murder conviction in the ACT since 1998.

So if you kill two people, set fire to the house, sit in your car covered in blood until the police find you,and admit the killings, you can, in fact, be found guilty of murder in Canberra.

But only then.

[Sean]

Massingbird would've got him off...

[The Hen]

Yup and Massingbird's cousin, Justice Higgins also would have dismissed the charges. Unfortunately for McDougall it was Justice Gray that was presiding this time and manslaughter didn't have a look in this time.




I don't think McDougall was very good at going "wibble".

[loCAtek]

What were murders convicted of before? Mishandling weapons? VOLUNTARY manslaughter? Oopsie!?

[loCAtek]

TRAGEDY: Darcy Freeman who was thrown to her death by her father

Arthur Phillip Freeman, the man who threw his four-year-old daughter off Melbourne's West Gate Bridge, has been convicted of her murder.


A jury of five men and seven women, after five days of difficult deliberation, last night found that Freeman, 37, of Hawthorn, had consciously, voluntarily and intentionally tossed Darcey Iris Freeman to her death at 9.15am on January 29, 2009.

The verdict came a day after the foreman told Justice Paul Coghlan they would ''never agree unanimously on a verdict, no matter how much further time the jury spends on deliberations''.

After answering seven additional questions from the jury yesterday, Justice Coghlan told them he would not make them continue if his answers did not achieve anything. But by the time the jurors entered court 11 just before 8pm, they had all reached the same conclusion.

Several jurors cried as Justice Coghlan thanked them for their ''great patience and dedication'', before excusing them from jury duty for the next decade.

Ozzie make terrible jury members, it was not the recorded confession of ''say goodbye to your children'' in the minutes before he tossed Darcey to her death on what was to have been her first day of school. ''You'll never see your children again,'' he said. It was 'Make up your damn, fool minds!', by the judge that decided it.

[BoSoxGal]

Mental disease was an issue in the case. The law around mental disease defense in the US is very complicated, as I'm sure it is in Oz, too. It doesn't surprise me that a jury was deadlocked until getting further clarification from the Judge on such issues. Jurors generally take the duty seriously and most, as a reflection of the general public, are reluctant to believe a parent is capable of such a heinous act while in a sane state.

Good on them for making that leap and giving him the verdict he deserved.

[The Hen]

However, unlike Canberra, all other cities HAVE recorded murder convictions. The Darcy Freeman case was not in Canberra, and as far as I am concerned the correct verdict was reached.

[loCAtek]

Right, add to the sociopath's 'to do' list:

✓ Lure target to Canberra.

[liberty]

However, unlike Canberra, all other cities HAVE recorded murder convictions. The Darcy Freeman case was not in Canberra, and as far as I am concerned the correct verdict was reached.

Are there many criminal cases in the ACT that could be charged as murder? As I understand it even though the ACT is a large federal capital territory Canberra is the only jurisdiction; the rest of the land being park land. So how is it that The Darcy Freeman case was not in Canberra, but is considered to effect your crime statistics? Was the case moved, confused.

[Sean]

It doesn't affect anything in Canberra liberty. The Darcy Freeman case was not the case mentioned in the OP. I'm not quite sure why it was brought up...

[The Hen]

Darcy Freeman cas was in a totally different jurisdiction and has nothing to do with Canberra. It does not affect Canberra's crime statistics in the slightest.

Would you expect a murder trial in Ohio to be heard in Washington? If it wasn't, would you expect the outcome to have any bearing on the crime statistics for Washington?