David Eastman

David Eastman
David Harold Eastman (born 29 September 1945) is a former public servant from Canberra, Australia. In 1995, he was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. A 2014 judicial inquiry recommended the sentence be quashed and he should be pardoned. On 22 August of the same year, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory quashed the conviction, released Eastman from prison, and ordered a retrial.
Eastman sought leave to the High Court to appeal against the decision for a retrial. His appeal was unsuccessful, and a retrial commenced on 18 June 2018. On 22 November 2018, the jury in the retrial found Eastman not guilty of murder. Eastman, who had served 19 years in custody, was awarded A$7 million in compensation in October 2019.
Early life and background
Eastman's father, Allan Eastman who died in 1987, worked at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and had several overseas postings in ambassadorial roles. As a child, Eastman frequently moved house due to his father's overseas postings. Eastman has one younger sister and two older twin sisters. Eastman was very successful at Canberra Grammar School where he was dux, and he went to the University of Sydney at the age of 16. When he was 21 he started seeing a psychiatrist because he was "feeling lonely and miserable and not getting on with people".
In 1986, Eastman's mother requested a restraining order on Eastman after he threatened her life while trying to break down her front door.
Career
Eastman was a Treasury official until 1977 when he retired on health grounds. He later applied for a post at the Australian Bureau of Statistics but was rejected with one reason being given that he had written letters to the press regarding economic and business matters which might be seen to prejudice the Bureau's reputation. Although the Ombudsman was not allowed to investigate internal public service matters, he agreed to investigate a case brought by Eastman because he was a member of the public at the time. Subsequently, the Ombudsman concluded there had not been discrimination against Eastman.
Eastman had sought, on several fronts and over a sustained period, to be reinstated to the public service. On 21 December 1988 approval to his reinstatement was granted.
According to media reports from Eastman's criminal trial, Eastman became involved in a dispute with a neighbour on 17 December 1987; and Eastman was charged with assault. He led a determined campaign to convince police that he had been wrongly charged and that it was his neighbour who had been the instigator. On 16 December 1988 Eastman met with Colin Winchester, the Chief Police Officer of ACT Policing, in an attempt to review the assault charge. The meeting was brokered by Neil Brown, the shadow attorney-general, who also met with Peter McAulay, the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police. On 21 December 1988 Winchester advised Eastman that he would need to face the assault charges in court; and an appearance date was set for 12 January 1989. Eastman was advised by letter that the AFP would not interfere with the conviction. The letter arrived at Eastman's flat on the morning of 10 January 1989.
It was alleged that Eastman had made threats against Winchester's life in the period preceding Winchester's murder.
Death of Winchester
On 10 January 1989, at about 9:15 pm, Colin Winchester was shot twice in the head with a Ruger 10/22 .22-calibre semi-automatic rifle fitted with a silencer. Winchester was murdered as he parked his police vehicle near his house in Deakin, Canberra. Winchester parked in his neighbour's driveway; his neighbour was an elderly woman who felt safer with a car parked in her driveway. Winchester is Australia's most senior police officer to have been murdered.
The day following Winchester's murder, police interviewed Eastman as a murder suspect.
Legal proceedings
After two years of investigations that included an inquest by the ACT Chief Coroner, Eastman was summonsed to appear before the Coroner, but failed to do so. A warrant for Eastman's arrest was issued on 23 December 1992 and on the same day he was arrested and charged with the murder of Winchester. Eastman was subsequently committed to a trial.
Murder trial
During the 85-day trial that commenced in 1995, Eastman repeatedly sacked his legal team and eventually chose to represent himself. Eastman also abused the judge during his trial, and during later legal proceedings and appeals. A report written for Eastman's murder trial stated that he previously had "six charges of threatening to kill, 128 charges of making harassing or menacing phone calls, 11 charges of assault and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm". Also "He has been charged with assaulting police on three occasions." During the trial the Crown presented evidence that allegedly linked Eastman to the firearm used, to traces of ammunition and propellant from the silencer, and reported sightings of Eastman near the murder scene and at gun shops in Queanbeyan. Eastman was legally bugged for three and a half years; yet only a very small proportion of the recorded material was used as evidence in his trial. In evaluating the case, Flinders University academic, David Hamer, reported that:
After a lengthy and difficult trial, on 3 November 1995 a jury returned a verdict of guilty against Eastman and he was convicted for murder of Winchester. Eastman was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Subsequent appeals and inquiries
Subsequent to his conviction, Eastman was litigious and repeatedly appealed against his conviction. He lost an appeal in the Federal Court in 1999; and a subsequent appeal to the High Court in 2000. In 2000 and 2001, while detained in the Goulburn Correctional Centre, Eastman successfully lobbied for and was granted a judicial review of his conviction. The aim of the review was to determine if Eastman had sufficient mental capacity in order to plead in the trial for the murder of Winchester. After two years of hearings, Miles J determined that Eastman had sufficient capacity and the conviction for murder was unchanged.
Eastman tried again in 2005 on several grounds, including his fitness to stand trial, unreliable forensic evidence taken from the scene, and other doubts as to his guilt. His application was dismissed. In 2008 proceedings before the Full Bench of the Federal Court, Eastman, appearing without legal representation, sought that his initial appeal be allowed, his conviction quashed and a retrial in the Supreme Court. The matter was dismissed.
A new inquiry relating to his conviction was announced in August 2012 and headed by Acting Justice Brian Martin. Louise Taylor, later the first Indigenous Australian jurist in the ACT and the first Aboriginal woman to be appointed as a Supreme Court judge in Australia, worked on the inquiry. Martin reported to the Supreme Court that:
The Australian Federal Police unsuccessfully sought that parts of the report be withheld.
On 22 August 2014 the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory quashed the conviction, released Eastman from prison, and ordered a retrial in spite of the recommendation from the report by Martin J that "a retrial is neither feasible, nor fair." Eastman appealed the decision for a retrial to the ACT Court of Appeal and then to the High Court. Both appeals were dismissed and in 2017 it was ordered that a retrial should be held. The retrial commenced in Canberra on 18 June 2018.
Retrial and compensation
On 22 November 2018, Eastman was found not guilty by a jury in the ACT Supreme Court. Eastman's lawyer Angus Webb also read out a statement, saying a miscarriage of justice had left Eastman spending 19 years in custody. Referring to today's verdict he said, "Justice has been done." Terry O'Donnell, a former public defender who previously acted for Eastman said outside his court that he had been watching the legal saga "with some horror," but was now relieved for Eastman. "The first trial was an absolute disgrace, it was a shambles, it was a miscarriage – the forensic evidence was almost certainly fabricated in some respects." The cost of the retrial, including lead-up proceedings, was estimated to exceed A$30 million. Eastman, who had served 19 years in custody, lodged a civil claim against the ACT Government, seeking compensation for wrongful imprisonment. Eastman rejected an ex-gratia offer of compensation of more than A$3 million, instead asking for at least A$18 million. On 14 October 2019, in the ACT Supreme Court, Justice Michael Elkaim awarded Eastman A$7.02 million in compensation under the Human Rights Act and ordered the ACT Government to pay Eastman's costs.
Other legal matters
Whilst in custody, in 2001 Eastman was evicted from his public housing apartment that he had not occupied for ten years. Eastman appealed the eviction order to the ACT Supreme Court on the basis that he had not been given enough notice to effectively defend his position. The Court ruled in Eastman's favour and determined that he was denied natural justice. The ACT Tenancy Tribunal was directed to review the case.
On 27 May 2009 Eastman was transferred from a New South Wales prison to the Alexander Maconochie Centre, a newly opened prison located in the ACT, to see out his sentence. During his period in New South Wales prisons he lodged a large number of complaints alleging ill-treatment by guards and was frequently moved between jails.
See also
List of miscarriage of justice cases
References
External links
Selected legal proceedings
Eastman's 1997 appeal to the Federal Court claiming that the trial judge erred in the directions which he gave to the jury on various grounds; and granted discriminatory bail conditions. The Court dismissed the appeal.
Eastman's 2000 appeal to the High Court that Eastman was unfit to plead and the Crown knew that he was suffering a mental illness and was incapable of instructing legal counsel, matters not previously reviewed by the Courts. The Court dismissed the appeal.
Eastman's 2003 appeal to the High Court that a Magistrate, appointed by the ACT Supreme Court, be empowered to review evidence to determine the fitness of Eastman to plead, reviewing earlier decisions made by the ACT Supreme Court and the Full Court of the Federal Court. The High Court upheld the appeal.
Eastman's 2008 appeal to the ACT Supreme Court Court of Appeal following the decision by the ACT Supreme Court (single judge) that Eastman was not denied procedural fairness. The Court dismissed the appeal.
Full Court of the ACT Supreme Court decision to quash Eastman's conviction and to order a retrial.
Eastman's 2016 appeal to the ACT Court of Appeal following an earlier unsuccessful appeal to the ACT Supreme Court for a permanent stay on proceedings for the charge of murder. The Court dismissed the appeal.
Australian public servants
People from the Australian Capital Territory
Living people
1945 births
Australian people convicted of murdering police officers
People convicted of murder by the Australian Capital Territory
People acquitted of murder
People educated at Canberra Grammar School
Overturned convictions in Australia
People wrongfully convicted of murder
1989 in Australia