The Canberra Times has the news that convicted murderer Rebecca Massey is chancing her arm on the ACT’s appeal-a-go-round, safely removing the case from a know-nothing jury of her peers and returning it to the forgiving arms of the judiciary.
Massey’s legal team argues the judge who presided over the trial, Justice Malcolm Gray, failed to direct the jury properly on crucial points of law.
According to appeal papers, Justice Gray did not properly direct the jury about the evidence upon which Massey relied in her self-defence claim.
He is said to have failed to give the jury adequate instructions on the matter of self-defence and failed to link his instructions to the evidence on the topic.
It is argued that the errors deprived Massey of a fair chance of acquittal and the jury’s verdict is ”unsafe and unsatisfactory” as a result.
Massey’s lawyers seek to have her murder conviction quashed, allowing the Ngunnawal woman to walk free, or have the case remitted to the Supreme Court again for a re-trial.