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An Australian Ooopsie

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

File this one under “O” for “ooopsie” and “oh shucks:” THE Victorian government will today posthumously pardon a man hanged 86 years ago for the rape and strangulation of a 12-year-old girl. In a move that will create legal history, Victorian governor David de Kretser has signed a pardon for accused killer Colin Campbell Ross which Attorney-General Rob Hulls will announce during question time in the Victorian parliament today, Fairfax has reported. Ross, 28, who ran a wine saloon in the Eastern Arcade in Bourke Street, was alleged by the Crown to have given Alma Tirtschke alcohol before raping and strangling her in Gun Alley, off Little Collins Street, on New Year’s Eve, 1921. He went to the gallows the following year protesting his innocence, the only physical connection between him and the crime being hairs on a blanket at his Maidstone home that the jury was told came from the scalp of the victim, Fairfax reported...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on May 27, 2008 (boomark / email).