A HEARING into whether a man previously acquitted of murder can be retried under double jeopardy laws has been told DNA is crucial to the case, with prosecutors alleging new evidence shows his blood was found inside the home of the deceased.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was previously found not guilty of stabbing a woman to death.
The woman was found wrapped in bedding with a pillow.
The man was arrested again over the 1980s murder last year under Queensland’s double jeopardy laws.
He has been released on bail.
The Queensland Court of Appeal is hearing the application made by the Crown to have the man retried for murder.
Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Byrne today told the court that when the man originally went to trial in the 1980s the court was told a pillow case had two areas consistent with the man’s blood.
The man denied he had bled that night.
After the trial in which a jury found the man not guilty, samples from the pillow case were sent for DNA testing in Victoria.
A partial DNA profile matched the man, the court was told today.
The Crown says the samples were returned to Queensland in 1999 but that it would be contested if they were actually returned.
Further testing in 1999-2000 gave DNA profiles consistent with the man, the court heard, and a re-examination of those tests was conducted in 2015-16 which gave a partial match.
It is the first time an application has been made in Queensland to retry an acquitted person over murder.
Under the laws media cannot yet publish any information that may identify the accused.
Queensland laws were previously changed that allowed a person to be charged again if there was new substantial and compelling evidence but only if the case was after October 2007.
Laws were overhauled again by former Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie in 2014, which made double jeopardy provisions retrospective.
The hearing is before Queensland Court of Appeal president Justice Walter Sofronoff, Justice Hugh Fraser and Justice Philip Morrison.
It is expected to continue for another day.
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