David Eastman

Legal proceedings After two years of investigations that included an inquest by the ACT Chief Coroner, Eastman was summonsed to appear before the Coroner, but failed to do so. A warrant for Eastman's arrest was issued on 23 December 1992 and on the same day he was arrested and charged with the murder of Winchester. Eastman was subsequently committed to a trial.

Murder trial

During the 85-day trial that commenced in 1995, Eastman repeatedly sacked his legal team and eventually chose to represent himself. Eastman also abused the judge during his trial, and during later legal proceedings and appeals. A report written for Eastman's murder trial stated that he previously had "six charges of threatening to kill, 128 charges of making harassing or menacing phone calls, 11 charges of assault and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm". Also "He has been charged with assaulting police on three occasions."

The prosecution case at trial, while purely circumstantial, was substantial: ... the Crown presented in excess of 200 witnesses. There were almost 7000 pages of transcript and over 300 documentary and other exhibits.

Subsequent appeals and inquiries Subsequent to his conviction, Eastman was litigious and repeatedly appealed against his conviction. In 2000 and 2001, while detained in the Goulburn Correctional Centre, Eastman successfully lobbied for and was granted a judicial review of his conviction. The aim of the review was to determine if Eastman had sufficient mental capacity in order to plead in the trial for the murder of Winchester. After two years of hearings, Miles J determined that Eastman had sufficient capacity and the conviction for murder was unchanged.

Eastman tried again in 2005 on several grounds, including his fitness to stand trial, unreliable forensic evidence taken from the scene, and other doubts as to his guilt. His application was dismissed. Louise Taylor, later the first Indigenous Australian jurist in the ACT and the first Aboriginal woman to be appointed as a Supreme Court judge in Australia, worked on the inquiry. Martin reported to the Supreme Court that:

The Australian Federal Police unsuccessfully sought that parts of the report be withheld.

On 22 August 2014 the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory quashed the conviction, released Eastman from prison, and ordered a retrial in spite of the recommendation from the report by Martin J that "a retrial is neither feasible, nor fair." The retrial commenced in Canberra on 18 June 2018.

Retrial and compensation On 22 November 2018, Eastman was found not guilty by a jury in the ACT Supreme Court. Eastman's lawyer Angus Webb read out a statement, saying a miscarriage of justice had left Eastman spending 19 years in custody. Referring to today's verdict he said, "Justice has been done." Terry O'Donnell, a former public defender who previously acted for Eastman said outside the court that he had been watching the legal saga "with some horror," but was now relieved for Eastman. "The first trial was an absolute disgrace, it was a shambles, it was a miscarriage – the forensic evidence was almost certainly fabricated in some respects." The cost of the retrial, including lead-up proceedings, was estimated to exceed A$30 million. Eastman, who had served 19 years in custody, lodged a civil claim against the ACT Government, seeking compensation for wrongful imprisonment. Eastman rejected an ex-gratia offer of compensation of more than A$3 million, instead asking for at least A$18 million. On 14 October 2019, in the ACT Supreme Court, Justice Michael Elkaim awarded Eastman A$7.02 million in compensation under the Human Rights Act and ordered the ACT Government to pay Eastman's costs.

Other legal matters Whilst in custody, in 2001 Eastman was evicted from his public housing apartment that he had not occupied for ten years. Eastman appealed the eviction order to the ACT Supreme Court on the basis that he had not been given enough notice to effectively defend his position. The Court ruled in Eastman's favour and determined that he was denied natural justice. The ACT Tenancy Tribunal was directed to review the case.

On 27 May 2009 Eastman was transferred from a New South Wales prison to the Alexander Maconochie Centre, a newly opened prison located in the ACT, to see out his sentence. During his period in New South Wales prisons he lodged a large number of complaints alleging ill-treatment by guards and was frequently moved between jails.