Joseph Grimberg

Last updated
Joseph Grimberg, SC
Born(1933-04-08)8 April 1933
Died17 August 2017(2017-08-17) (aged 84)
Singapore
Other namesJoe Grimberg
Occupation Lawyer

Joseph Grimberg, SC was a Singaporean prominent lawyer and former Supreme Court judge.

Contents

After completing his education and studies in law, Grimberg joined Drew & Napier when he was called to the Singapore Bar in 1957. He was a senior partner at the law firm from 1967 to 1987, when he was appointed Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court in 1987.

During his time as Judicial Commissioner, one of the cases which Grimberg presided was the 1984 Amex banker murder case, where a banker named Frankie Tan was murdered by his foster brother Vasavan Sathiadew and three hired Thai killers, as planned by Tan's wife to avenge his frequent infidelity and spousal abuse. Except for one Thai killer (who escaped Singapore and went missing till today), the rest of the five were arrested and charged with murder. After a trial lasting 45 days, Grimberg, together with High Court judge T. S. Sinnathuray, found three of the four killers (the fourth was found guilty of manslaughter instead) guilty of murder and sentenced them to death by hanging on 6 October 1989. [1] [2] Sinnathuray and Grimberg's verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal, resulting in the three killers being executed in October 1992. [3] [4]

Grimberg was also one of the two judges (the other being Lai Kew Chai) who sentenced Sim Ah Cheoh, a housewife and single mother of two sons, and her two bosses - Lim Joo Yin and Ronald Tan Chong Ngee - to death in 1988 for attempting to illegally import 1.37 kg of heroin from Singapore to the USA. Sim was later granted clemency and her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1992, while both Lim and Tan were executed. [5] [6]

In 1989, he re-joined Drew & Napier as a consultant. In 1997, Grimberg became one of the first lawyers in Singapore to be appointed Senior Counsel. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

Death

Grimberg died on 17 August 2017, at the age of 84.

Legacy

Several awards have been named after Grimberg, such as SMU School of Law's Top Advocate prizes and the Singapore Academy of Law's Outstanding Young Advocate prize.

Related Research Articles

Walter Woon Cheong Ming is a Singaporean lawyer who served as the fifth attorney-general of Singapore between 2008 and 2010. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Lee Kong Chian Visiting professor at the Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law, and the dean of the RHT Legal Training Institute.

Woo Bih Li is a Singaporean lawyer who has been serving as a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore since 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lai Kew Chai</span>

Lai Kew Chai was a Singaporean judge and the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court Bench, having served for almost 25 years as a Judge.

Hri Kumar Nair is a Singaporean lawyer and former politician who has been serving as Deputy Attorney-General of Singapore since 2017. A former member of the People's Action Party, he was the Member of Parliament representing the Thomson division of Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC between 2006 and 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judicial officers of the Republic of Singapore</span>

The judicial officers of the Republic of Singapore work in the Supreme Court and the State Courts to hear and determine disputes between litigants in civil cases and, in criminal matters, to determine the liability of accused persons and their sentences if they are convicted.

Glenn Jeyasingam Knight is a Singaporean lawyer. He was the first Director of the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) when it was founded in 1984. He lost his post in 1991 after being convicted of corruption in a much-publicised trial. In 1998, he was again tried and convicted for misappropriating money while in office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Martin Scripps</span> British serial killer

John Martin Scripps was a British serial killer who murdered three tourists—Gerard Lowe in Singapore, and Sheila and Darin Damude in Thailand—with another three unconfirmed victims. He posed as a tourist himself when committing the murders. He cut up all his victims' bodies, using butchery skills he had acquired in prison, before disposing of them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. S. Sinnathuray</span> Singaporean judge

Thirugnana Sampanthar Sinnathuray, known professionally as T. S. Sinnathuray and to his friends as Sam Sinnathuray, was a judge of the High Court of Singapore. Educated at University College London and called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, he practised for a few years in a law firm before beginning a career with the Singapore Legal Service, serving with the Attorney-General's Chambers as Crown Counsel and deputy public prosecutor (1960–1963), and senior state counsel (1966–1967); with the Subordinate Courts as a magistrate (1956–1959), first district judge (1967–1970), and senior district judge (1971–1978); and with the Supreme Court as deputy registrar and sheriff (1959–1960), and registrar (1963–1966). In 1978 he was elevated to the office of Judge of the High Court of Singapore, and served until his retirement in 1997.

The Toa Payoh ritual murders took place in Singapore in 1981. On 25 January, the body of a nine-year-old girl was found at a block of public housing flats in the town of Toa Payoh, and two weeks later, the body of a ten-year-old boy was found nearby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. S. Rajah</span> Singaporean lawyer

Kasinather SaunthararajahPBMSC, known professionally as K. S. Rajah, was a Senior Counsel and Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore. Born in Penang, he came to Singapore in 1950 and worked as a teacher before embarking on part-time law studies at what was later known as the University of Singapore, graduating in 1963 with a Bachelor of Laws with honours. He then spent the next 22 years with the Singapore Legal Service, eventually heading the civil and criminal divisions of the Attorney-General's Chambers and also serving as Director of the Singapore Legal Aid Bureau and head of the Official Assignee and Public Trustee's Office. In 1985 he retired from the Legal Service and went into private practice, establishing the firm of B. Rao & K. S. Rajah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subhas Anandan</span> Singaporean criminal lawyer (1947–2015)

Subhas Anandan was a Singaporean criminal lawyer, who was known to have represented criminals in many high-profile cases that occurred in Singapore.

Tan Teow Yeow was a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore and a former President of the Industrial Arbitration Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josephus Tan</span> Singaporean lawyer

Josephus Tan Joon Liang, better known as Josephus Tan, is a Singaporean criminal defence lawyer known for his pro bono work. In 2015, Tan received the Singapore Youth Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M Ravi</span> Singaporean lawyer

Ravi Madasamy, better known as M Ravi, is a Singaporean human rights lawyer and activist. Known for his work as a cause lawyer, he has served as counsel in multiple high-profile court cases in Singapore, many of which have become leading cases in Singaporean constitutional law and Singapore's approach toward capital punishment and LGBT rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punch Coomaraswamy</span> Singaporean judge

Punch Coomaraswamy was a Singaporean judge, diplomat and politician who served as Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore between 1966 and 1970, and Singapore Ambassador to the United States between 1976 and 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Frankie Tan</span> 1984 murder in Singapore

On the night of 24 October 1984, a 39-year-old American Express banker, Tan Tik Siah, otherwise known as Frankie Tan, was ambushed and attacked by four men as he arrived home from work in Singapore. He was strangled to death by his assailants and his body was found by his wife, who reported the murder to the police. Three of the assailants and the victim's wife were arrested and charged in the death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life imprisonment in Singapore</span> Legal punishment in Singapore

Life imprisonment is a legal penalty in Singapore. This sentence is applicable for more than forty offences under Singapore law, such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping by ransom, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons, and trafficking of firearms, in addition to caning or a fine for certain offences that warrant life imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelvin Lim Hock Hin</span> Singaporean serial sex offender

Kelvin Lim Hock Hin, a Singaporean citizen, is a convicted sex offender who committed various sexual offences against young boys between 1988 and 1996.

References

  1. ↑ "Three sentenced to death for murder of Amex banker". National Library Board. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  2. ↑ "共谋杀害陈铁城三被告判处死刑" (in Chinese). National Library Board. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  3. ↑ "S'porean, two Thais hanged for 1 984 murder of banker". National Library Board. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  4. ↑ True Files S2 - EP6: Jealousy knows no limit. Channel 5. 5 February 2016. Retrieved 2020-08-14– via meWATCH.
  5. ↑ "Housewife and 2 men to hang for drug trafficking". The Straits Times. 30 July 1988. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  6. ↑ "这11人在新加坡犯了滔天大罪也能有退路". 红蚂蚁 (in Chinese). 3 January 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  7. ↑ "Former Supreme Court judge Joseph Grimberg dies". Channel NewsAsia . 18 August 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  8. ↑ Vijayan, K.C. (17 August 2017). "Prominent lawyer Joe Grimberg dies, aged 84". The Straits Times . Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  9. ↑ Vijayan, K.C. (18 August 2017). "'Finest of his time', lawyer and ex-judge Joe Grimberg dies". The Straits Times . Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  10. ↑ Vijayan, K.C. (9 September 2017). "Ex-judge's humility captured in oral history interview". The Straits Times . Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  11. ↑ "Interview with Mr. Joseph Grimberg". HeinOnline . 1990. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  12. ↑ "Joe Grimberg Top Advocate Prizes". Singapore Management University . Retrieved 2017-10-06.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.