• An Australian man’s conviction was reversed on appeal after he confessed to killing US mathematician Scott Johnson in 1988.
• conviction for gay US student murder in Sydney was revoked
• Steve Johnson, the brother of Mr. Johnson, termed the sentence in May a “relief” and advocated for a reexamination of the case for decades.

33 years after Mr. Johnson’s body was discovered in Sydney at the bottom of some cliffs, Scott White was given a prison term in May.

Although his family has always suspected it was a gay hate crime, the cause of death was initially ruled as suicide.

Mr. White, who suffers from cognitive impairment, insists that he did not murder Mr. Johnson.

His attorneys were successful in arguing that the 52-year-old entered a guilty plea when “confused” and “stressed.”

At a pre-trial hearing in the New South Wales Supreme Court in January, Mr. White, who was 18 at the time of the alleged murder at North Head in Manly, shocked his defence team by saying, “I am guilty.”

In less than 30 minutes, he had written a statement pleading not guilty to the 27-year-murder old’s and explaining that he did so out of fear that his ex-wife, who claimed he had confessed the killing to her, would “come after” him.

However, the court denied Mr. White’s attorneys’ request to withdraw the plea, and he was given an eight years and three months in prison sentence.

The NSW Appeal Court determined on Friday that the appeal to withdraw the plea should be given another look, vacating Mr. White’s conviction and sentence.

If the application is granted, Mr. White might be subject to a retrial.

The investigator in charge of looking into Mr. Johnson’s death, Peter Yeomans, said outside court that the man’s family in the US was “extremely dissatisfied” with the verdict.

Steve Johnson, the brother of Mr. Johnson, termed the sentence in May a “relief” and advocated for a reexamination of the case for decades.

The police had previously apologised to the family for their failure to adequately investigate the case and safeguard the homosexual community in the 1980s.

Up to 80 gay males are thought to have been killed in Sydney during that time, many of whom were thrown from cliffs.

Even while Justice Helen Wilson concluded in May that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Mr. Johnson’s death was the result of a gay hate crime, she ruled that Mr. Johnson’s sexual orientation had “fueled [Mr. White’s] indifference to his victim’s destiny.”

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