NSW: Retrial ordered for man accused of stabbing murder

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-2000
NSW: Retrial ordered for man accused of stabbing murder

SYDNEY, Aug 31 AAP - A man convicted of fatally stabbing his landlord's agent in a
dispute over replacement locks will face a new trial after his conviction was today overturned
on appeal.

Ju Sheng Zhang was found guilty by a jury of murdering Guiseppe Arena at Fairfield,
in Sydney's west, in May 1997, and sentenced to a minimum 19 years in jail.

But the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal today found that after the question
of Zhang's fitness to be tried was raised at his trial, the judge should have aborted
the case.

The court found an inquiry should have been held into Zhang's fitness to stand trial
after the issue was raised.

Before the trial Zhang was interviewed by psychiatrists but was uncooperative and declined
to talk about the case other than to say he realised what he did was regarded as wrong
but that he had a good reason.

Zhang represented himself at the trial but refused to question witnesses saying that
the matter had been dealt with in the Local Court.

He asserted that he had killed Mr Arena but that it was not "wrong" to do so and that
the matter had been examined in the Local Court and the Supreme Court proceedings were
not necessary.

When asked to plead Zhang said: "whether it is guilty or not guilty, the issue of the
plea is not in existence. I only want to tell the court what I did and my attitude towards
it."

In ordering the new trial the court noted the question of Zhang's unfitness to be tried
had been raised before his arraignment on the new trial.

Under the Mental Health Act, the Attorney-General must now determine whether an inquiry
into Zhang's fitness to be tried should be conducted before the re-trial.

AAP gl/sb/arb/de

KEYWORD: ZHANG

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