After 34 years in jail for murder, Derek Bromley gets chance to plea innocence in Court of Criminal Appeal

A CONVICTED murderer who has protested his innocence for 34 years could have his name cleared on Tuesday.

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A CONVICTED murderer who has protested his innocence for 34 years could have his name cleared on Tuesday.

Derek Bromley, who was convicted of murdering Stephen Docoza in 1984, will face the Court of Criminal Appeal, which will decide whether or not to clear his name.

Legal experts believe it is Bromley’s best chance of having his conviction overturned, drawing comparisons to Henry Keogh, whose murder conviction was quashed in 2014.

If he wins on Tuesday, it is believed Bromley will have spent more time in prison before having a conviction overturned than any other inmate in Australian history.

The case could also open the door for a retrospective re-examination of about 400 SA cases that included evidence from controversial forensic scientist Dr Colin Manock.

Bromley and an alleged accomplice, John Karpany, were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Mr Docoza, whose body was found floating in the River Torrens.

Murder victim Stephen Docoza.

From the outset police reported Mr Docoza had been beaten and drowned following an altercation after Bromley asked the man for sex.

A taxi driver claimed to have dropped the men, who had been drinking, close to the Morphett St bridge, near where the murder took place.

A schizophrenic man also claimed to have witnessed the bashing.

But Bromley has consistently denied involvement.

He exhausted appeals in the 1980s, at which his lawyers disputed the veracity of witnesses.

However, laws enacted in 2013 allow second appeals by an accused if there is fresh and compelling evidence.

Last year Bromley launched another bid to clear his name, arguing evidence provided by Dr Manock — whose evidence was also questioned in the Keogh case — was incorrect.

Although he completed his non-parole period in 2008, Bromley has remained in prison because he has consistently refused to say he is guilty and take ownership of the crime — a prerequisite for release.

Wrongful conviction campaigner and law expert Bob Moles, who has followed the case for years, is confident Bromley will be freed.

“I think there is an overwhelming chance that the conviction will be set aside,” Dr Moles told the Sunday Mail.

He said evidence from Dr Manock, that Mr Docoza had drowned, had been disputed by experts who had also given evidence in the appeal case at which Keogh’s murder conviction was overturned.

“The expert evidence on the Bromley case is almost identical to the issues on the Keogh appeal,” Dr Moles said.

“When you put it all together, the integrity of the case is gone.

“If there is an explanation consistent with the evidence of the accused, then you cannot convict.

“If the conviction is overturned, it will be clearly be an Australian record.

“Nobody has been in prison in Britain, Canada or Australia and had a convictions overturned after 35 years.”

Australian Lawyers Alliance criminal justice spokesman Greg Barns said setting aside the conviction could trigger a reinvestigation of other trials from around the time and payment of compensation.

“If it is found that he was wrongly convicted, there needs to be a major compensation package because his life had been removed from him by the state,” Mr Barns said.