Investigation A Case of Science and Justice

A disturbing story that tells A prospect we all regard with horror 70 exonerations shows how the inex- is that an innocent person might go act legal system can be brought to how science belatedly to jail, or worse, be executed for a heel by an exact science. Elements in ensured that justice crime he or she did not commit. the trials of the first 70 Death Row was done There have been some celebrated residents to be freed show that their overseas cases, most notably the trials were shot through with false post-execution exoneration of Timo- witness testimony (17), incompetent thy Evans, a case that played a large defence (23), false confessions (15), part in the repeal of capital punish- prosecutorial misconduct (34), plus a ment in England. In 1950, Evans frightening 61 cases of mistaken was convicted of murdering his wife identity. and child in London and was hanged. Some years later the notori- The Button case ous , Reginald Halliday The Western Australian case of John Christie, who had been convicted of Button, who faced the gallows when the of his wife and five other he was charged with the wilful mur- women at 10 Rillington Place, Lon- der of his girlfriend Rosemary don, confessed that he had also mur- Anderson in 1963, is one Australian dered Evans’ wife. case that demonstrates that our le- We now find, with rapid advances in gal system, which prides itself on the sciences surrounding DNA, that fixing its own mistakes, is not im- this nightmare is more common than mune. Bret Christian is a journalist and publisher of anyone supposed, at least in the It is true that the system finally the Post group of suburban newspapers in United States. On April 8, 2002, Ray released John Button from his inner Perthand a subscriber to the Skeptic for Krone, who was convicted and sen- prison, but it took almost 40 years around 20 years. After socialising with some tenced to death in 1992, was the for the science to catch up with the convicted murderers he decided to pursue a 100th Death Row DNA exoneration law, or vice versa. John Button life of crime in his spare time. in the USA. An analysis of the first turned 19 the day his particular

Page 18 - the Skeptic, Spring 2002 nightmare began. He was 58 with a car he had stolen that when he walked into the central night, a 1962 Holden. He de- police station in and fi- scribed how she flew over the nally witnessed the destruction bonnet, over the roof and dis- of his criminal record. appeared. He had then driven His 19th birthday dinner at the car to a park 3km away his parents’ Perth suburban and crashed in into a tree to home had been pleasant, until disguise the damage. The Hold- he and Rosemary, aged 17, had a en’s owner was contacted and tiff. She flounced out and he and police records confirmed started to walk home. John that his car was found crashed jumped into his car, a 1962 into a tree in Kings Park the French-designed Simca Aronde, next morning, just as Mr Cooke and followed her, trying to per- described. As would be ex- suade her to get in. But she was pected, John Button appealed determined to walk. When she A police photo of John Button’s car taken on the basis of this confession. disappeared under a train-track after he was charged. Cooke gave evidence at the subway, he stopped the car, lit a of manslaughter, and he was sen- appeal, but the judges, already cigarette and waited. He knew that tenced to 10 years hard labour. Had sickened by the details of his other on the other side was a deserted he been convicted of wilful murder, crimes, refused to believe anything industrial strip. The darkness and as charged, he could have hanged. he said. They said he was inventing the loneliness might make her the story to delay the death sentence change her mind. But when he drove Cooke’s confession he had been handed for other mur- through four minutes later, he spot- ders. He was hanged in October There his case would have rested ted her lying in the sand several 1964. John Button was released from had it not been for the arrest four metres from the road, fatally in- jail after five years, but never gave months later of Eric Edgar Cooke, a jured. Thinking there was a crazed up trying to clear his name. 32 year old father of seven who had hit and run driver at large, he car- In 1998 I agreed to publish the confessed to eight , includ- ried the bleeding girl to his car and superb biography of Eric Cooke for ing the killing of Rosemary rushed her to a doctor’s surgery. author . The book Anderson. The doctor called an ambulance purported to include new evidence He provided great detail of how he and the police. When the cops ar- from two witnesses who had come had spotted her just after she rived they noticed damage to the left forward during Ms Blackburn’s re- walked under the subway, waited for front corner of Mr Button’s car. He search. Their stories cast doubt on the traffic to clear then lined her up told them he had had a minor acci- the conviction of John Button. The dent when he ran into the back of book’s publication received wide a Ford Prefect car three weeks publicity and the new evidence before and had not had the dam- led to the WA Attorney General age fixed. The police turned up a agreeing to re-open Mr Button’s report of this accident. But it case. Public expectations were looked suspicious. He was the boy- raised that the new evidence friend, there had been an argu- would exonerate Mr Button. ment, he was on the scene, there The many people affected by was damage to the car and there the death of Ms Anderson and Mr was blood on the car which, it Button’s conviction were trauma- transpired, was transferred from tised all over again. Following the girl and his own bloodstained publication of the book, I re-inter- hands as they brushed past it. He viewed both new witnesses. It also had a bad stutter, which in- quickly became apparent to me vestigating police took as nervous- that they had nothing to add to ness at the questions he was being the available evidence, and so it asked. proved in court two years later. I After about five hours in police felt strongly that in the interests custody and learning that his girl- of justice and the peace of mind of friend had died in hospital, Mr the many people affected, some- Button signed a confession that thing now had to be done to re- had been typed out by a detective. John Button’s car fitted against the Ford Prefect he solve the question of Mr Button’s The jury at his trial convicted him crashed into weeks before the fatal crash. guilt, publicly and once and for

the Skeptic, Spring 2002 - Page 19 Science and Justice all. I went looking for the damage to Mr Button’s car equivalent of DNA evi- could have masked further dence. damage caused by an impact with Ms Anderson. Search for an expert Mr Haight also wanted to Court files included good measure the displacement of police photographs of Mr the dummy to one side of the Button’s car, alleged to car. Ms Anderson’s body was have been the murder found well off the road. Dif- weapon. ferent vehicle profiles cause A search for the world’s different displacement dis- leading expert on pedes- tances. The Holden has a trian crashes found William square-fronted look while “Rusty” Haight in the the Simcas have rounded United States. He is a lines. former police officer with engineering training and is Crash investigation well qualified in both the A major problem with theory and practice of pe- Cooke’s evidence at John destrian crash reconstruc- Button’s original appeal was tion. He has driven in more that the car he stole was than 700 staged crashes, fitted with a steel sun visor. analysed the results and The appeal judges simply testified in scores of court did not believe that a body hearings. could have been flung over Now with a private con- the top of the car and dis- sultancy based in San Di- placed well to the left-hand ego, he was then employed side without being caught by by the engineering depart- the visor or ripping it off. ment of a Texan university. They ridiculed Cooke as he A large amount of his time stuck firmly to his story in was spent instructing po- the witness box. lice officers in traffic crash At the test venue, video investigation. equipment was installed to After Mr Haight agreed record the impacts from vari- review the available evi- ous angles for court pur- dence, he said that no firm poses, including cameras conclusion could be reached inside the cars. Still photos about which car killed the were also taken before, dur- girl. The problem was that ing and after the tests. no cars of the vintage of The dummy was stood on those said to be involved the bitumen road and held had ever been crash-tested upright with a breakable in a car v pedestrian situa- knot from a “gallows” con- tion. traption that we built. This I then arranged for Mr knot presented no resistance Haight to travel to Western when the dummy was struck to carry out such by a car. tests. He brought with him The three Simcas were a biomedical human-form crash-tested at speeds of 27, dummy, that behaves ex- 31 and 37mph (43, 50, 59km/ actly as a human body in a A sequence of four photos of a crash test with one of the Simcas. h). pedestrian crash situation. On this occasion the dummy was placed to be hit with the right The amount of damage to I had purchased three 1962 side of the car to show that if it is hit right, it goes right, and if it is each car varied with the Simca sedans and a 1962 hit left, it goes left. speed, but its position on the Holden sedan. The tests cars was consistent. It was The mask Mr Haight is wearing is to protect him from shattered were designed to show stark and obvious in each glass in case the windscreen smashes. whether the prior accident case. The leading edges of

Page 20 - the Skeptic, Spring 2002 the cars sustained some damage, No photographs are avail- and there were pronounced dents able of the damaged Holden to the rear of the bonnets caused Cooke stole that night, but by the dummy’s head striking the there is a detailed account metal. from the panel shop that re- Mr Haight explained that the paired it for the insurance physics is quite simple. The cen- company. tre of gravity of an adult is above Mr Haight hit the dummy the top of the striking edge of the with the Holden at 35mph bonnet. On impact, the body be- (56km/h) just to the left of gins to rotate around the axis of centre of the bonnet. To every- the leading edge, causing the one’s surprise except Mr head to impact towards the rear Haight’s, the dummy behaved of the bonnet, depending on the The third Simca showing bonnet damage. quite differently from when it length of the bonnet and the de- was hit by the Simcas. sign of the car. At highway The Holden sustained quite speeds, this head strike often severe damage to the leading occurs on the windscreen. edge of its bonnet and some The body continues to cart- head damage to the rear of the wheel. Because of the shape of bonnet. The dummy then the front of the Simca, some- cartwheeled towards the roof thing like an upturned boat, the of the car. It struck the visor dummy was flung to one side above the left hand side of the before contacting the wind- windscreen. screen and ended up on the road Mr Haight said in his evi- within a metre of the side of the dence that the visor did play a vehicle. role in the body motion, but The three test Simcas sus- not the role suggested by the tained none of the damage Crown at Mr Button’s original shown in the police photos of Mr appeal in 1964. The visor Rusty Haight with another of the Simcas, Button’s car. And Mr Button’s flexed and distorted, but showing the massive bonnet damage. car had none of the massive popped back into its original bonnet damage suffered by the test shape without even cracking the cars. paint. There was no discernable After the three Simca tests, Mr damage to the visor. Haight was able to declare immedi- But contact with the visor caused ately that Mr Button’s Simca could the dummy to deflect laterally to the not have struck Ms Anderson with left of the car, a distance of 6.5 feet sufficient force to kill her, or even (2 metres), well within the range seriously injure her. described by the witnesses who came Mr Haight concluded that the upon the original crash in 1963. damage that so aroused the suspi- The forward or down-range projec- cions of the original investigating tion of the dummy by the Holden police, was all caused by the earlier was also markedly different from collision between the Simca and the that of the Simcas, and indeed most Ford Prefect. other cars Mr Haight has tested. Mr Haight’s Simca tests also Mr Haight was able to declare in failed to displace the “body” more court that the death of Rosemary than about one metre to the side of Anderson could have occurred ex- the car - nothing like the two to actly as Cooke had described it, but three metres described by witnesses that it was not possible for Mr But- at the time. ton’s car to have killed her. There remained only the test of the Holden fitted with a visor to Court finding check the veracity of Cooke’s state- Strict legal rules govern the accept- ment that he had driven the car at ance of fresh evidence by appeal the girl at 35-40 mph and she had courts. They will not allow evidence been flung over the top of the car. The dummy and John Button. that was available but not used at

the Skeptic, Spring 2002 - Page 21 Science and Justice the timeof the original trial. In 2: Car manufacturers carry out the same way that modern crash tests to assess the safety of DNA evidence is now admissi- occupants. However none carry ble to re-open old cases, the out pedestrian crash tests. Mr Haight believes they fear lawsuits crash tests fitted the "fresh if they knowingly market vehicles evidence" criteria because the with front end shapes that may science of surrogate crash cause untoward pedestrian dam- reconstruction had not devel- age. oped in 1963-64. 3: Another murder appeal is now The three Court of Criminal before the West Australian courts Appeal judges accepted his in which Mr Haight’s crash test evidence, emphasised the im- evidence could be critical. It is the portance of the sun-visor evi- case of , a deaf dence and quashed Mr But- The dummy has just cleared the sun-visor and is being displaced to mute who was in jail for a 1959 axe murder for which Eric Cooke ton’s conviction. The judges the left of the Holdenr. said Mr Haight's evidence also confessed. At Mr Beamish’s original unsuccessful appeal, the was compelling and convinc- judges cross-referenced Cooke’s ing. It was the longest time evidence with that of the Button lapse between conviction and appeal, again declaring him a liar. exoneration in Australia’s Referring back to the Button case, legal history. the then Chief Justice wrote, “Cooke claims to have had little Notes damage to the car he was driving”. “What damage there was resem- 1: After the Perth crash tests Mr bles in some measure that which Haight was invited to take the was found on Button’s car. The dummy to Sydney for crash test- mathematical odds against such a ing on vehicles fitted with roo coincidence beggar the imagina- bars. Mr Haight refused. One hit tion.” with a kangaroo bar would com- Mr Beamish was sentenced to pletely dismember his $2,500 The damaged Holden showing the distance the dummy hang. His sentence was commuted dummy, he said. Keep that in landed to the left of the car. and he served 15 years. mind next time you cross the road.

The story behind the story subscriber. We contacted Bret and his haps the original conviction could be In July, ABC TV broadcast, as part story appears here. justified, but the fact remains that of its Australian Story series, a two- Episode 2 of Australian Story fol- an innocent man was convicted of a part programme on the case of a WA lowed a panel of all those concerned crime he did not commit. Further- man, John Button, who had served in the case engaging in a session of more the use of DNA evidence now a prison sentence for manslaughter “restorative justice”. What stood out shows that a substantial number of and who had been cleared of the in the interplay between the partici- people in the USA have been charges almost 40 years later. pants was the way the very elderly wrongly convicted of serious crimes. On the face of it this story held parents of the victim gradually real- Somehow the law must recognise nothing of particular interest to the ised that the man they had blamed the advances science has made in Skeptics, until it became apparent for 40 years for their daughter’s the forensic field, and the way scien- that the key to the case for Mr But- death was, in truth, an innocent man; tific evidence is treated should be ton’s innocence rested on some em- extraordinarily moving TV viewing. reviewed. There are good arguments pirical scientific experiments that This case raises some disturbing for and against the adversarial sys- showed very convincingly that the questions about how scientific evi- tem of justice we use, but the law victim could not have been killed in dence is (or should be) treated in needs to understand that, in the the way claimed by the prosecution. courts. Most of us probably regard scientific area at least, the truth One participant very much in- our legal system as reasonably fair, does not necessarily reside with the volved in the campaign to have the albeit with some blemishes where scientist in the better suit, or the conviction overturned was Bret innocent people have been wrongly more glib exposition, but with the Christian, the publisher/editor of convicted. Perhaps we have been too evidence itself. Incidentally, that the Post group of Perth suburban sanguine in our judgement. The tech- should also be the case with the law newspapers and a long-time Skeptic nology used in these experiments was itself, but we doubt if anyone be- not available in the 1960s, and per- lieves that. BW

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