Why is it that some people are convicted of murders that they did not commit, while others are not convicted of murders that they did commit? Australian Police Services are generally well funded, so something more must be involved. Just what that is, is investigated in this book. To minimise the prospect of future errors, we need both to scrutinise past cases where errors have been revealed, and to investigate police training procedures with a view to uncovering any errors of omission or commission, to see what scope there is for improvements. Each of us has good reason to take an interest in such matters, since any one of us could be a victim if we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact all of us are victims to the extent that some guilty parties continue to walk free on our streets, and as taxpayers all of us fund the additional costs of dealing with crime, including the sizeable compensation payments that are made to those whose wrongful convictions are quashed. This book deals with instructive cases which continue to agitate the public mind, and makes practical suggestions for improved procedures.

Betty Shanks was brutally murdered 70 years ago. This book’s third edition reveals Betty’s secret life as documented in an ASIO file, which states that: - Betty was in an ‘intimate association’ with a young married man who was a member of the Communist Party of Australia. - Betty’s best friend from schooldays at Brisbane Girls Grammar School and at the University of Queensland, Winifred Cowin, worked for ASIO before committing suicide in 1958. - An ASIO officer arrived in Brisbane on Sunday 21 September 1952 to recruit Betty, only to be told that she had been murdered the previous Friday night. Ted Duhs alleges that Betty was killed by a man she met at the Grange tram terminus as she returned home from a night class at Brisbane’s Central Tech. This man, referred to as ‘the man in the brown suit’, was seen by four witnesses, including Marie Patton who is still alive. Minutes before Betty was attacked, Marie saw him 30 yards from the murder scene. Evidence suggests he was Eric Sterry. His daughter, Desche, is still alive, and in 1999 her story “My Dad Killed Betty Shanks” was published in The Courier Mail, after her earlier attempts to persuade the police were unsuccessful.

The US Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of The National Academies to conduct a workshop that would examine the interface of the medicolegal death investigation system and the criminal justice system. NIJ was particularly interested in a workshop in which speakers would highlight not only the status and needs of the medicolegal death investigation system as currently administered by medical examiners and coroners but also its potential to meet emerging issues facing contemporary society in America. Additionally, the workshop was to highlight priority areas for a potential IOM study on this topic. To achieve those goals, IOM constituted the Committee for the Workshop on the Medicolegal Death Investigation System, which developed a workshop that focused on the role of the medical examiner and coroner death investigation system and its promise for improving both the criminal justice system and the public health and health care systems, and their ability to respond to terrorist threats and events. Six panels were formed to highlight different aspects of the medicolegal death investigation system, including ways to improve it and expand it beyond its traditional response and meet growing demands and challenges. This report summarizes the Workshop presentations and discussions that followed them.

Tina Thomas would have been turning 35 on the day that her husband of less than two weeks stood trial for her murder in the Jefferson County Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, US. Eight years and almost four months had passed since Tina died on her honeymoon, while scuba diving near the SS Yongala wreck on the Great Barrier Reef in Northern Queensland, Australia. During this period, there had been extensive police investigations conducted by local, state and federal agencies in Queensland and...

The Language of the News investigates and critiques the conventions of language used in newspapers and provides students with a clear introduction to critical linguistics as a tool for analysis. Using contemporary examples from UK, USA and Australian newspapers, this book deals with key themes of representation – from gender and national identity to ‘race’– and looks at how language is used to construct audiences, to persuade, and even to parody. It examines debates in the newspapers themselves about the nature of language including commentary on political correctness, the sensitive use of language and irony as a journalistic weapon. Featuring chapter openings and summaries, activities, and a wealth of examples from contemporary news coverage (including examples from television and radio), The Language of the News broadens the perceptions of the use of language in the news media and is essential reading for students of media and communication, journalism, and English language and linguistics.

Australia’s development, from the most unpromising of beginnings as a British prison in 1788 to the prosperous liberal democracy of the present is as remarkable as is its success as a country of large-scale immigration. Since 1942 it has been a loyal ally of the United States and has demonstrated this loyalty by contributing troops to the war in Vietnam and by being part of the “coalition of the willing” in the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and in operations in Afghanistan. In recent years, it has also been more willing to promote peace and democracy in its Pacific and Asian neighbors. This fourth edition of Historical Dictionary of Australia covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Australia.