jurors, three refused to sign petitions, one older man who was convinced of Ryan's guilt and the two who believe Ryan was not guilty. Two other jurors could not be contacted. Seven jury members, including Gildea, signed separate petitions requesting Ryan's death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Later, some of the jurors came forth and stated they would never have convicted Ryan of murder had they known that he would in fact be executed. Gildea said "We didn't want the rope. If we had known Ryan would hang, I think we would have gone for manslaughter." Appeal Opas decided to appeal against the murder verdict. The appeal was to the Victorian Court of Criminal Appeal, a bench consisting of three judges of the Supreme Court. The basis of the appeal was that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. He argued that as a matter of law that the inherent inconsistencies and improbabilities and even impossibilities in the evidence. At the trial there had been a legal argument on when the crime of escaping from jail had been completed. In the Crimes Act, a relevant section provides that "every male person lawfully imprisoned for any crime who escapes shall be guilty of a felony". At the trial, Mr Justice Starke had directed the jury: "In certain circumstances, the crime of murder may be established even though the accused had no intention of killing. And that is so in these circumstances. If a killing occurs by an act of violence in the course of a commission of a felony involving violence, or in the furtherance of the purpose of such felony, the accused is guilty of murder, even though there is no actual intention of killing." There was long legal argument on when the escape felony finished, did it stop once Ryan and Walker left the prison property or did it continue until they were caught in Sydney nineteen days later? The appeal was dismissed on 8 June 1966. On 14 October 1966, the Full Bench of the High Court of Australia rejected appeals by Ryan and Walker. With all legal avenues yet to be exhausted, legal aid to Ryan was cut by the Bolte Government. Premier Bolte then directed the Public Solicitor to withdraw Opas' brief as the government was not going to fund the petition to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Ryan had