The senior judge who will sit with two colleagues to consider the Martin report into the Eastman case has called for submissions from David Eastman, the ACT government and the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions by Friday, ahead of a sitting of the court on Tuesday.
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His request has caused some confusion, because the legislation on the inquiry system has said that the ACT Supreme Court, in considering the report of an inquiry, "may have regard only to matters stated in the report" and "must not hear submissions from anyone".
The Martin inquiry has recommended that the Full Court quash the 1995 conviction of Eastman for murdering Assistant AFP Commissioner Colin Winchester in 1989. Justice Steven Rares will sit with Justice Michael Wigney and acting Justice Dennis Cowdroy to decide whether to follow this recommendation, do nothing, or to order a fresh trial.
The judge also seems to have joined the ACT DPP as a party, though, strictly, only the ACT government and Eastman are now regarded as parties. The court appears to have asked for general submissions about procedures, about what the court should do, and about whether it will be acting with judicial or administrative power.
Two of the three judges have sat on Eastman matters before. Last year, Justice Rares ordered the ACT government to consider Eastman's application to be released on licence. Justice Wigney was one of three judges who decided, two weeks ago, that the Martin inquiry should go ahead, even though the DPP and AFP were broadly right in their objections to its having been established in the first place.
