Writer
Stephen Cordner
Stephen Cordner AM is emeritus professor of forensic medicine at Monash University and was the founding director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. He is co-author with Kerry Breen of Good Medical Practice: Professionalism, Ethics and Law (4th ed., 2016), and Wrongful Convictions in Australia: Addressing issues in the criminal justice system (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2023).
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Another wrongful conviction? UK nurse Lucy Letby may be a scapegoat for an under-funded NHS
In August 2023, nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six babies in the neonatal unit of a UK National Health Service (NHS) hospital. The Australian media has reported on the current instalment of the saga (viz. a judicial inquiry into conditions at the hospital where Letby Continue reading »
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Why is Australia’s criminal justice system so resistant to change?
How many more wrongful convictions does Australia have to have before state and federal attorneys-general and senior members of the legal profession agree that they must address this serious problem? Continue reading »
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Kathleen Folbigg’s wrongful convictions: Quashed, but why did they happen?
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal has adopted the findings of the inquiry of the Honorable Thomas Bathurst AC KC into the convictions of Ms Kathleen Folbigg. As a result, her five criminal convictions from 2003 have been quashed and she has been acquitted. Continue reading »
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Absence of systematic compensation for wrongful convictions compounds the injustice
Commentators have sought to predict what level of compensation Kathleen Folbigg will receive for her twenty years of wrongful imprisonment. None have asked a more important question: is it possible to adequately compensate a wrongfully convicted person for all the harms that are now known to ensue from prolonged incarceration? Continue reading »
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Miscarriages of justice: Kathleen Folbigg is one of an unknown number of people wrongly convicted
Most Australians have little idea how frequently miscarriages of justice in the form of wrongful convictions occur in Australia. This lack of knowledge should be no surprise; not even our criminal justice system tracks such data let alone researches the possibility of wrongful convictions. In the absence of data, most people, including many in the Continue reading »
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The wrongful conviction of Kathleen Folbigg: why did it happen and what must be done to stop it from happening again?
It is 41 years since Lindy Chamberlain was convicted for a non-existent crime, spent nearly five years in prison, and had her family life destroyed. Continue reading »
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It’s not forensic rocket science: why we need a Criminal Cases Review Commission
An independent review body will buttress the courts, remedying miscarriages of justice by deciphering often complex expert evidence. Continue reading »
