'The Smiling Funnelweb' is one of Australia's most illustrious advocates. Chester Porter QC clocked up countless courtroom triumphs during his long career and has been involved in changes to our legal system.
Chester has long been passionate about notable cases of wrongful conviction -- from the Dreyfus Affair to Lindy Chamberlain and the innocents on death row. As a senior member of the National Institute of Forensic Science, Chester is regularly invited to speak on the subject of wrongful convictions. As counsel assisting the Chamberlain Royal Commission, he was successful in exposing an extraordinary list of forensic blunders. He continues to advocate expenditure of government money on well equipped fully integrated laboratories to deal with forensic evidence "open tot he defence as well as to the Crown so the aim should be to get the right result, not to get convictions".
"Conviction Of The Innocent, by Chester Porter"
I found some of the information contained in the pages of this book to be quite shocking. Details that were never exposed about high (and not so high) profile court cases in Australia over the last few decades are revealed here that really make you wonder about our justice system, and whether it is capable of doing the job in each and every instance. This book is easy to read and a real eye-opener.
Vikki, 16/12/2008
