John Button

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Charge:	Manslaughter
Sentence:	10 years
Years Imprisoned:	5.5
Year Crime:	1963
Year Convicted:	1963
Year Cleared:	2002
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Australia
County or Region of Crime:	Western Australia
City of Crime:	Perth
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"John Button was wrongly convicted of manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend, Rosemary Anderson based on his police pressured false confession. Button was convicted of driving his car into his 17 year-old girlfriend, Rosemary Anderson, after an argument as she walked along a road in Perth, Western Australia. Serial killer Eric Cooke confessed to the crime in 1964, but both the police and the appeal court that heard Button's case believed that Button and not Cooke killed the woman. Mr. Button's protestations of innocence and attempts to clear his name were futile until 1992 when journalist-turned-author Estelle Blackburn met him and took up his cause, and in 1998 her book about the wrongful convictions of Button and Darryl Beamish for murders committed by Cooke was published. Expert evaluation of the crime scene photos and photos of Button's car excluded Button's car as causing the death of his girlfriend. Based on the cumulative weight of the new evidence, on February 25, 2002 Button's conviction was quashed by Western Australian's Court of Criminal Appeals. It was 39 years after Ms. Anderson's death. On April 9, 2003, Mr. Button, 59 years old, was offered CAN$460,000 in compensation, which at the time was the largest amount ever offered a wrongly convicted person in Western Australia. (The compensation was the equivalent of US$277,266 at the exchange rate on April 9, 2003.) In 1959 Darryl Beamish was convicted of a murder also committed by serial killer Eric Cooke, and in 2005 the WA Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction."
Conviction Caused By:	False confession
Innocence Proved By:	"An American expert, whose trip to Australia was financed by the editor of The Post, a suburban newspaper in Perth, provided expert evidence that convinced Western Australia's Court of Appeals that Button's car was not the one that killed his girlfriend."
Defendant Aided By:	"Estelle Blackburn wrote about his case in her 1998 book, "Broken Lives." Attorneys Tom Percy and Johnathan Davies worked pro bono on the case for four years."
Compensation Awarded:	"AU$460,000 (AUS )(The equivalent of US$277,266 at the exchange rate on April 9, 2003.)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?	Yes
Age When Imprisoned:	19
Age When Released:	25
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"Despite DNA testing, injustices will continue without proper investigation, Paul Wilson, 05-02-03"
Information Location 1:	http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/2003/Feb03/Wilson.htm
Information Source 2:	"Broken Lives by Estelle Blackburn, AUS"
Information Location 2:	http://www.margaret-river-online.com.au/brokenlives/
Information Source 3:	"Man jailed for killing girlfiend cleared after 40 years, (AFP), Perth, AUS, Feb 25, 2002."
Information Location 3:	http://sg.news.yahoo.com/asia/au-7.html
Information Source 4:	"Wrongly convicted murderer offered $460,000 payout, Sydney Morning Herald, April 9, 2003"
Information Location 4:	http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/09/1049567730050.html
Information Source 5:	"Button Was Not the Killer, Post Newspapers, Perth, Western Australia, February 2000"
Information Location 5:	http://www.margaret-river-online.com.au/brokenlives/report.htm
Book About Case:	""Broken Lives" by Estelle Blackburn, (Stellar Publishing (AUS) 1998)"
Book Information:	http://www.margaret-river-online.com.au/brokenlives/
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John Button

Charge:

Manslaughter

Sentence:

10 years

Years Imprisoned:

5.5

Year Crime:

1963

Year Convicted:

1963

Year Cleared:

2002

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Australia

County or Region of Crime:

Western Australia

City of Crime:

Perth

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

False confession

Innocence Proved By:

"An American expert, whose trip to Australia was financed by the editor of The Post, a suburban newspaper in Perth, provided expert evidence that convinced Western Australia's Court of Appeals that Button's car was not the one that killed his girlfriend."

Defendant Aided By:

"Estelle Blackburn wrote about his case in her 1998 book, "Broken Lives." Attorneys Tom Percy and Johnathan Davies worked pro bono on the case for four years."

Compensation Awarded:

"AU$460,000 (AUS )(The equivalent of US$277,266 at the exchange rate on April 9, 2003.)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Yes

Age When Imprisoned:

19

Age When Released:

25

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Despite DNA testing, injustices will continue without proper investigation, Paul Wilson, 05-02-03"

Information Location 1:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/2003/Feb03/Wilson.htm

Information Source 2:

"Broken Lives by Estelle Blackburn, AUS"

Information Location 2:

http://www.margaret-river-online.com.au/brokenlives/

Information Source 3:

"Man jailed for killing girlfiend cleared after 40 years, (AFP), Perth, AUS, Feb 25, 2002."

Information Location 3:

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/asia/au-7.html

Information Source 4:

"Wrongly convicted murderer offered $460,000 payout, Sydney Morning Herald, April 9, 2003"

Information Location 4:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/09/1049567730050.html

Information Source 5:

"Button Was Not the Killer, Post Newspapers, Perth, Western Australia, February 2000"

Information Location 5:

http://www.margaret-river-online.com.au/brokenlives/report.htm

Book About Case:

""Broken Lives" by Estelle Blackburn, (Stellar Publishing (AUS) 1998)"

Book Information:

http://www.margaret-river-online.com.au/brokenlives/

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