Eddie Murray (rugby league player)

Eddie Murray (1960? – June 12, 1981) was an Australian rugby league player who was controversially found dead in his police cell in the New South Wales town of Wee Waa within an hour of having been detained for being drunk and disorderly [cite web |url=http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/hansArt.nsf/V3Key/LC20040622068 |title=Eddie Murray Death in Custody Inquiry Uanita Nielsen Murder Investigation |accessdate=2008-08-22 |work= |publisher=Parliament of New South Wales |date=2004-06-22] under the 1979 Intoxicated Persons Act [http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aar/deaths.htm] (a law repealed in 2005).

Murray was found hanging in his cell at the Wee Waa Watch-House [cite web |url=http://www.justiceaction.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=82&Itemid=119 |title=Indigenous Justice/Social Rights |accessdate=2008-08-22 |work= |publisher=Justice Action |date=] around 3:30pm [cite web |url= http://www.hreoc.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/1999/99_54.html |title= Too Much Wrong: A report into the death of Eddie Murray |accessdate=2008-08-22 |work= |publisher=Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission |date=1999-11-25] , and presumed to have committed suicide, in a manner disturbingly similar to other deaths in custody [cite web |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956674,00.html |title= Too Australia A Cry of Desperation |accessdate=2008-08-22 |work= |publisher= Time Magazine |date=1989-01-09] . He was 21 [http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=23] years old at the time. Eddie Murray's parents, Leila and Arthur Murray remained unconvinced that their son's death was a suicide, and fought for a more extensive investigation into Murray's death. Murray's death has helped to draw attention to the issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody.

Murray's case has drawn the attention of several investigations, including the Muirhead Royal Commission, the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board Report on Street offences, and his case was one of the first to be investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1988 [cite web |url= http://austlii.law.uts.edu.au/au/journals/AboriginalLB/1988/57.html |title= Public Drunkenness Laws in Australia |accessdate=2008-08-22 |work= |publisher= Aboriginal Law Bulletin |date=1988-12] .

In 1997, Murray's body was exhumed and re-autopsied, revealing a previously undetected smashed sternum, and a forensic pathologist determined that the injury had most likely occurred immediately prior to his death. Despite this, the details of his death remain a mystery, and still no one has been officially implicated in his death. This has been to the dissatisfaction of Murray's family, who have called for a more extensive inquiry.

ee also

*Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
*2004 Palm Island death in custody

References