Melbourne: In a major relief to India-born American surgeon Jayant Patel, an Australian court on Friday quashed his conviction for manslaughter of three patients in a Queensland hospital and ordered a retrial, calling him a victim of a “substantial miscarriage” of justice. Dubbed by the Australian media as “Dr Death”, 62-year-old Patel, who was jailed for seven years in 2010 for three counts of manslaughter and one count of causing grievous bodily harm to his patients, walked free from a Brisbane prison after the High Court set aside his convictions and jail term. Dismissing his convictions, the Brisbane High Court, in a unanimous decision, ordered a retrial saying a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred on the 43rd day of Patel’s 58-day trial, when the “prosecutors radically changed their case in a way which rendered irrelevant much of the evidence.”
“The prejudicial effect on the jury was not overcome by the directions given by the trial judge about the limited use that could be made of that evidence,” the court said in a summary of its reasons published here.
“A substantial miscarriage of justice occurred. The Court set aside the order of the Court of Appeal and in its place ordered that there be a new trial.” During the hearing before Justice Martin Daubney, the Director of Public Prosecutions did not oppose Patel’s bail. Patel’s lawyers argued the bail conditions were “exactly the same” as the conditions he faced while on trial in 2010, and that the 20,000-dollar surety lodged at that time remained in place. (PTI)
