The Director of Public Prosecutions has launched a second attempt to downgrade the inquiry into David Harold Eastman's murder conviction, arguing Eastman cannot raise many of the issues because they are not new, or could have been raised at trial.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The DPP this week filed submissions advocating a change to the scope and course of the inquiry, and calling on the inquiry to interpret its terms of reference narrowly.
Inquiry boss, acting judge Brian Martin, on Friday abandoned a hearing scheduled for next week to give the board, Eastman and the Australian Federal Police time to consider the submissions, lodged by Tim Game, SC, for the ACT DPP.
Justice Martin ordered written submissions in response should be filed and served by October 28.
Assistant Australian Federal Police Commissioner Colin Winchester was shot in Deakin in January 1989.
Eastman, who has always maintained his innocence, has served 18 years of a life sentence after a jury convicted him of the murder in 1995.
Last year, judge Shane Marshall ordered an inquiry into the conviction after he was satisfied there was ''fresh doubt or question'' about Eastman's guilt.
He ordered the inquiry based on 19 wide-ranging grounds, including the conduct of the prosecution and investigating police.
The territory's top prosecutor, Jon White, last year unsuccessfully tried to limit the scope of the inquiry, arguing everything else had already been fought out at earlier hearings.
The DPP renewed its agitations this week, asking for a clarification on the inquiry's authority by interpreting the scope of the inquiry with regard to jurisdictional limits.
"It has become evident that the inquiry may be about to commence without there being a clear understanding between counsel assisting and parties as to the scope of matters to be inquired into," the submission said.
The AFP has said it is ramping up its cooperation with the inquiry by establishing an operation unit to trace vital information.
It is understood the AFP recently provided spreadsheets which identified an extra 40,000 documents to be handed to the inquiry.
The AFP confirmed it established a dedicated Operation Jaqen team to meet the needs of the inquiry, including subpoenas and requests for information.
A deputy chief police officer was supervising the new arrangements.
A dedicated board liaison officer had also been appointed.
An inquiry directions hearing had heard counsel assisting the inquiry, Liesl Chapman, SC, raise concerns about AFP tardiness in producing subpoenaed documents and providing assistance with names and addresses.