Community presentation at Newling Gardens Retirement Village, Armidale NSW, on 19 March 2026.
By Professor Helen Fraser, Director of the Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence, University of Melbourne
It’s hard to imagine confessing to a crime you did not commit. That’s why a confession is considered the ‘gold standard’ of evidence. Yet worldwide hundreds of people who were convicted on the basis of a confession have later been proven innocent. How can that be? This talk looks at that question through the story of Stephen ‘Shorty’ Jamieson, from Sydney.
See video below – and thanks to all who made this enjoyable event possible!
Want more on the ‘Shorty’ case? Try these two quick reads as a starting point
- New linguistics research casts doubt on decades-old murder conviction: https://theconversation.com/new-linguistics-research-casts-doubt-on-decades-old-murder-conviction-267425
- A life sentence for a crime he may not have committed – and there could be more just like him: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-life-sentence-for-a-crime-he-may-not-have-committed-and-there-could-be-more-just-like-him