The High Court of Australia unanimously allowed an appeal against Fitzgerald's conviction for murder and serious injury from a home invasion. Fitzgerald claimed his DNA found on a didgeridoo at the crime scene was transferred from a handshake with his co-accused earlier that evening, not direct contact. The High Court agreed the evidence did not conclusively establish Fitzgerald deposited his DNA and did not rule out alternative explanations for its presence. They quashed his conviction and entered a verdict of acquittal.
The High Court of Australia unanimously allowed an appeal against Fitzgerald's conviction for murder and serious injury from a home invasion. Fitzgerald claimed his DNA found on a didgeridoo at the crime scene was transferred from a handshake with his co-accused earlier that evening, not direct contact. The High Court agreed the evidence did not conclusively establish Fitzgerald deposited his DNA and did not rule out alternative explanations for its presence. They quashed his conviction and entered a verdict of acquittal.
The High Court of Australia unanimously allowed an appeal against Fitzgerald's conviction for murder and serious injury from a home invasion. Fitzgerald claimed his DNA found on a didgeridoo at the crime scene was transferred from a handshake with his co-accused earlier that evening, not direct contact. The High Court agreed the evidence did not conclusively establish Fitzgerald deposited his DNA and did not rule out alternative explanations for its presence. They quashed his conviction and entered a verdict of acquittal.
Posted on 13 August 2014 by Martin Clark Jeremy Gans, The DNA, the Handshake and the Didgeridoo: Fitzgerald v The Queen (18 August 2014). The High Court has unanimously allowed an appeal against the decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia in R v Fitzgerald and acquitted the appellant of murder. Fitzgerald was convicted of murder and causing serious injury as part of a group of six people involved in a home invasion. He denied involvement and claimed that the DNA evidence found on a didgeridoo linking him to the offence was transferred to his co-accused during a handshake earlier that evening. The SASCFC agreed that it was open to the jury to conclude beyond reasonable doubt that the DNA was deposited directly by Fitzgerald, and unanimously dismissed the appeal. (The High Court refused to hear an appeal from Fitzgeralds co-accused, Sumner, on the basis that there were insufficient prospects of success.) The Court allowed the appeal after the hearing ended on 19 June, quashing the appellants conviction and entering a verdict of acquittal, and published its reasons for judgment on 13 August. The Court held that the evidence was not not sufficient to establish the prosecution case, and that alternative hypotheses consistent with the appellants innocence had not been ruled out: the central argument that the appellants DNA found on a didgeridoo came from his blood was not supported by the evidence; a secondary transfer of that DNA may have occurred; and the presence of that DNA did not raise any inference about the time or circumstances in which it was deposited there: [36]. Because the evidence could not support a conviction for either offence, no question of ordering a new trial arose.
Robert Franklin Godfrey, Cross-Appellant v. Ralph Kemp, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Center, Respondent - Cross-Appellee, 836 F.2d 1557, 11th Cir. (1988)
Jacqueline Gordon and George Gordon v. Teresa Stanley Tulsa County Jail Stanley Glanz, Sheriff Bill Reeves, Captain Donald Cherry, Lieutenant Red Wakefield, Lieutenant Robbie Moore, Nurse Bill Thompson, Undersheriff Jane Cook, Matron Denise Conley, Matron Dr. Ronald Barnes Ed Smittle, Sergeant Lance Ransey, Deputy Deputy Hlyton Vent Jeffries, Deputy Phillip Adams, Deputy Jack Seales, Lieutenant Joe Wagner, Sergeant Jim Helms Ernestine Turwell, Deputy John Does a Through E, 21 F.3d 1121, 10th Cir. (1994)
United States of America Ex Rel. James Morris Fletcher v. Angelo C. Cavell, Warden, Western State Penitentiary, Pittsburgh 33, Pennsylvania, 287 F.2d 792, 3rd Cir. (1961)
Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Opinions of the Judges Thereof, in the Case of Dred Scott versus John F.A. Sandford
December Term, 1856.