A Judge’s Perspective on Murder Trials

**Meshel Laurie** (0:02)
This is Australian True Crime with Meshel Laurie.
Our guest today is Lex Lasry, one of Australia's most respected lawyers and a former justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, who spent nearly two decades presiding over some of the state's most significant murder trials. Now retired, Lex has launched a podcast. It's called Law The Podcast with Greg Barns, where they unpack the legal issues behind the biggest stories making headlines. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Lex Lasry, formerly of the legal profession, Yes. Newly of show business.

**Lex Lasry** (0:54)
What a great description. How do you put that on a business card?

**Meshel Laurie** (0:57)
Just exactly that. I am so excited to have you in showbiz, because you've finally retired.

**Lex Lasry** (1:03)
I have, Michelle, yes. It's a great feeling of relief, I must say.

**Meshel Laurie** (1:07)
But did you feel that relief the other two times when you came back?

**Lex Lasry** (1:09)
No, no.
The first time I retired, I knew straight away I'd done the wrong thing, and I said I want to come back and they took me back. The second time was under much more difficult circumstances, and I resigned because of the conflict with the DPP. This time, I just got to the stage where I thought, I just don't want to do this anymore. I've been a judge for 19 years, 34 years at the bar, it's enough.

**Meshel Laurie** (1:34)
It's a lot.

**Lex Lasry** (1:35)
It's enough.
I did a podcast recently, and I did say to Michael Green in the course of the Lives in the Law podcast, I'm just tired of dealing with other people's tragedies and conflicts. So it's good not having to do that.

**Meshel Laurie** (1:51)
Yeah, that is a lot, isn't it? That is every day at work is, pretty much every day is someone else's tragedy.

**Lex Lasry** (1:57)
Yeah. Well, I mean, in the Supreme Court, for me, it was mostly somebody else's death in one form or another. And it is for the other. It's not just me. All judges are the same.
And I'd had enough.

**Meshel Laurie** (2:08)
Yeah. The second time that you retired and the issue with the DPP. So from that moment on, you stayed a Supreme Court judge in Northern Territory.

**Lex Lasry** (2:18)
I resigned from the Victorian Court.

**Meshel Laurie** (2:20)
Yeah.

**Lex Lasry** (2:20)
And then I had a year not doing anything.

**Meshel Laurie** (2:22)
Right.

**Lex Lasry** (2:24)
And then the Northern Territory Court offered me a position as an acting judge, which I did since the start of last year, which was great. It gave me a chance, actually, it gave me a chance to sort of feel what it was like to be a judge again and to feel that I could still do the job properly.
And I smiled at my protagonists back in Melbourne, when they appointed me in the Supreme Court in the Northern Territory. It's a bit of getting even, I think.

**Meshel Laurie** (2:52)
Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell us about what was going on in Melbourne, in Victoria?

**Lex Lasry** (2:58)
Yeah, I've talked about it before. So I had been the trial judge in the case arising from the Eastern Freeway crash that killed four police.

**Meshel Laurie** (3:06)
Hideous, yeah.

**Lex Lasry** (3:07)
I didn't sentence the driver of the truck, but I had the guy who was, in effect, the manager of the driver, who supervised his driving, and he was charged with heavy vehicle offenses. But also the Crown decided to charge him with four counts of manslaughter on a distant basis.
Anyhow, during the course of the directions hearing, the prosecutor announced to me that those four manslaughter charges were not to be preceded with. And I said, why? And they said, we're not telling you, we're just not proceeding with them. And then I said, well, surely the community, families of the police, everybody involved is entitled to some explanation. No, not giving it. So that was that. So I was very critical of that. And I was critical of the way the other aspect of the case had been handled. That led to an argument before me on behalf of the fellow who was still before the court for a stay of the proceedings. And in the end, I granted the stay, stopped the case basically.
Crown appeal to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal resoundingly overturned my ruling quite, quite expressively. You'd have to say they were very critical of my ruling.