Monday 3 March, 1947
Less than two months
after our grandfather's arrest, the murder trial officially known as Rex
v Brown commenced in Brisbane.
The Crown prosecutor's opening address
included a piece of significant 'evidence' which, he said, would later be relayed
to the court by a Crown witness. However the Crown failed
to call this so called 'witness' to the stand, which meant Reg Brown's defence team were
denied the opportunity to cross-examine.
Such an action is considered to be
fundamentally unfair and unethical and would support an application
to discharge the jury on the basis it involved a mistrial.
However, this serious breach
was not acknowledged; not by the Crown, the defence team nor the
Supreme Court judge, Alan Mansfield - later Sir Alan Mansfield, Governor of Queensland.
The jury, no doubt, placed importance on the damning evidence, after all it had been delivered by the Crown Prosecutor.
What hope did an innocent person have in this one-sided contest?
Deb and Jan
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