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High Court to hear challenge over murder verdict swapped to manslaughter
Key takeaways
- Lawyers for Michael O'Connell will tell the High Court that once he was acquitted of murder the court no longer had the option of a re-trial or a verdict of guilty of manslaughter.
- Evidence in the trial revealed O'Connell picked her up from the road and rushed her to hospital, telling staff she had fallen down some stairs.
- But there was a 14-year-old witness who maintained Ms Jordan was on the bonnet of O'Connell's car as he drove off.
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Lawyers for Michael O'Connell will tell the High Court that once he was acquitted of murder the court no longer had the option of a re-trial or a verdict of guilty of manslaughter. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Link copied Share Share article. The case of a Canberra man convicted over the death of his partner will be in the High Court today, after an appeal which swapped the jury's verdict of murder to manslaughter.
Michael O'Connell was originally sentenced to 15 years' jail for murder, but is now serving a ten-year jail sentence after his partner Danielle Jordan died from injuries suffered when she fell from his car as he tried to drive off.
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