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 serial killer, Reginald Halliday The Western Australian case of John Christie, who had been convicted of Button, who faced the gallows when the murder 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 Perth 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 murders, 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 Estelle Blackburn. 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.