Who was Ronald Ryan?

Answer 1

In 1967 Ronald Ryan was the last person to be legally executed in Australia.

Ryan had been a small-time petty criminal with no police record of violence.

Ronald Joseph Ryan was hanged inside Pentridge Prison on Friday Febuary 3, 1967 at 8:00 AM. The Victorian Premier Henry Bolte, played a major role in the hanging. Facing an upcoming state election he wanted to boost votes by taking a "tough on crime" stance. Bolte was determined Ryan would swing, even though most of the jury that had convicted Ryan of murder, made separate pleas and signed petitions not to hang Ryan. The hanging created the biggest public protests ever seen in the history of Australia.

Ryan was convicted and sentenced to hang for the shooting death of a prison officer during an escape from prison. There was a total lack of scientific ballistic forensics. There was a total lack of scientific evidence. Ryan was convicted based solely on unsigned, untaped and unrecorded allegations of "hearsay" verbals/confessions, said to have been made by Ryan to police. For unknown reasons, Ryan's rifle was never scientifically tested to prove it had fired a shot. Ryan's rifle had been hidden in the boot of a police car where it had been subjected to dirt and dust. Mysteriously, vital pieces of evidence (including the fatal bullet and spent bullet cartridge), which would have cleared Ryan went missing and thereby were never examined by scientific ballistic forensic experts.

The FACTS on the Ryan case:

• For unknown reasons, ballistic forensic experts never scientifically examined Ryan's rifle.
• There was no forensic proof and no conclusive evidence that Ryan's rifle had fired a shot at all.
• It was never proven by forensics that the fatal bullet came from the rifle in Ryan's possession.
• Despite extensive search by police, the fatal bullet mysteriously went missing and was never found.
• The fatal bullet was never scientifically examined by ballistic forensic experts, to prove which rifle fired the fatal bullet.
• Despite extensive search by police, the spent cartridge mysteriously went missing and was never found.
• The spent cartridge was never scientifically examined by ballistic forensic experts, for evidence.
• If Ryan had fired a shot, a spent cartridge would have spilled out of the rifle. No spent cartridge was ever found.
• All fourteen eyewitnesses for the prosecution testified different accounts of what they saw - there were widespread inconsistencies.
• Only four of the fourteen eyewitnesses testified of seeing Ryan fire a shot.
• All fourteen eyewitnesses testified of hearing one single shot. No person heard two shots.
• Prison officer Paterson, admitted and testified he fired one single shot, from an elevated distance.
• If Ryan had also fired a shot, at least one person among the dozens of people surrounding the scene of the crime, would have heard two shots.
• Forensic experts never scientifically examined prison officer Paterson's rifle, to prove it had fired a shot.
• Forensic experts never scientifically examined all other prison officers' rifles at the scene of the crime, to prove if their rifles had fired a shot.
• Ballistic evidence indicated that the prison officer was shot from a distance, in a downward trajectory angle.
• The measurement of the entry and exit wound on the deceased prison officer indicated that the fatal shot was fired from an elevated position. At the time of the shooting, there were many prison officers' armed with rifles surrounding the crime scene, on prison walls, on prison guard towers and on the streets.
• Eyewitnesses testified seeing prison officers aiming their rifles.
• Ryan (a shorter man) could not have fired at the prison officer (a taller man) in such a downward trajectory angle, as both were on level ground.
• Ryan could not have fired from a distance as evidence indicated, because Ryan was adjacent to the prison officer who was running after and adjacent to, the other prison escapee.
• Ryan could not have fired from an elevated position as evidence indicated, because Ryan was on level ground.
• Some eyewitnesses testified seeing Ryan recoil his rifle and smoke coming from the barrel of his rifle. In fact, ballistic experts testified at trial that type of rifle had no recoil and it contained smokeless cartridges.