Could it have been the late Charles Perkins who managed to ruffle the feathers of US ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young. Photo: Andrew Taylor
THE LAWYER who prepared the arguments that secured David Eastman the current inquiry into his conviction - if there ever is to be one - seems to have been retired from the fray, blocked from putting his arguments to the review.
Terry O'Donnell, a former public defender whose homework on the case led to the current review, is off the case because representatives of the prosecution, and counsel assisting, have indicated that they want to cross-examine him about a new piece of evidence - the finding of a gun said to have been in the boot of Eastman's car before the 1989 murder of Assistant AFP Commissioner Colin Winchester.
The teacher who owned the gun told O'Donnell after Eastman had been found guilty of the murder by the jury that he had borrowed Eastman's car to go rabbit shooting. During the trial, Eastman had been unable to explain how minute particles of gunshot residue had been found in the car.
Counsel assisting, Liesl Chapman, SC, from South Australia, and counsel for the DPP say they would be ''embarrassed'' to be cross-examining O'Donnell in a witness box if he were, before and after, to be sitting alongside them at the bar table. Indeed, it seems that there is objection even to his advising in the background.
It is not thought that the objecting counsel want to suggest that O'Donnell is lying about the circumstances of the witness coming forward or about the placing of the gun in a solicitor's safe. Instead they want to cross-examine him so that they can suggest that the gun could have been produced earlier - and thus that it is not ''fresh'' evidence.
Some might think that whether it is technically fresh or not is hardly material to whether it is casting a doubt about the safety of Eastman's conviction. Indeed, Kevin Duggan, the retired South Australian judge who will conduct the inquiry, ruled months ago that it was now too late to argue points about whether evidence is fresh. That, he said, had been a matter within the jurisdiction of Justice Shane Marshall of the Supreme Court, in setting up the inquiry, but was not a matter for Duggan whose job is to evaluate evidence, fresh or not, to see whether it raises any doubt about guilt.
The DPP has also objected to two other lawyers on the Eastman team, alleging conflict of interest. At least one of these is now out, and the position of the other is unclear. Naturally, all parties protest that knocking out the other army's artillery is an unfortunate and unintended result of the necessity of preventing any embarrassment to other lawyers.
On the other hand, another lawyer accused of conflict of interest - but working as one of counsel assisting - is still with the team. This man was on the professional staff of Justice Miles when he was conducting an earlier inquiry into Eastman's fitness to plead. He helped collate evidence put before the inquiry. But he says he was not privy to the judge's thinking and has no actual conflict.
Appearances, it seems, are in the eye of the beholder, and since it was Duggan who appointed him he is unlikely to be concerned.
Mr Duggan has threatened to appoint counsel for Eastman himself if the depleted Eastman team doesn't get a move on in finding new advocates. Whoever is appointed - perhaps from a shortlist of people to be be provided by the DPP and Ms Chapman - will have to master millions of words of transcript before being ready, unless the judge's anxiety about getting moving because of all the delays is thought to override any question of fairness to the man the inquiry is supposed to be all about.
A black view
One of the great random pleasures of Google is that a search for some item identified (by you) with a couple of keywords can produce material much more interesting that that for which one was searching in the first place.
By such an accident I stumbled over a post-retirement ''debrief'' of a US State Department analyst and intelligence officer, Evelyn Colbert, who had a close relation with US policy in south-east Asia, including Australia, for 30 years up until about 1980.
The 2005 interview tells many interesting things, now filed away, about US-Australian relations, but also sheds interesting light on Australian events seen, or remembered, from abroad.
One of her 1980 chores was to manage a visit to Australia by the US ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, a former prominent Afro-American politician.
''Andy was enthusiastically received at every event at which he appeared,'' Ms Colbert remarked.
''His encounter with representatives of the Australian Aborigines was quite different.
''There he was audience rather than speaker in a dimly lit, soon smoke-filled hall in Perth. A succession of tribal leaders stood up to speak, each repeating more or less what the others had said.
''Andy's people in particular were completely dismissive: 'These people are totally tribal; they have no notion of organisation; they will never amount to anything.'
''Another Aborigine encounter took place on our return to Canberra. There one of the few Aborigines who had risen to a role in national politics asked for an appointment.
''This was arranged … and, when he asked for a postponement until later in the day, this too was arranged, but he was warned that Andy might be a little late as, on doctor's orders, he would have to fit in a swim after his previous appointment.
This man, whose name I have forgotten, had recently published a biography titled I am a Son of a Bitch.
''And so he was. When he arrived in a room in the residence known as the library, he made it very evident that he was annoyed that Andy was not yet there and that only his public affairs officer, a tall and imposing woman, and I were there to greet him.
''Having complained about Andy's absence, he remarked sarcastically on the not-very-well-filled bookcases and then, in a more ingratiating tone, said to Andy's PAO, 'I know your people, I've been to Harlem.'
''Drawing herself to her full height (he was a very little man) she replied coldly, 'I was born and brought up in Chicago.'
''If he had anything significant to say to Andy, it has escaped my memory.''
I wonder who she could have been talking about? The book's title gives no clue. I have never heard of a book by that title.
On the other hand, the late Charles Perkins did write a book called A Bastard Like Me.
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