Can juries be trusted to follow judicial directions?
Former Liberal party staffer Bruce Lehrmann arrives at the ACT supreme court in Canberra on Wednesday, where he is on trial over the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP The jury hearing the trial in which Brittany Higgins has alleged that she was raped by a fellow political staffer in Parliament House in […]
Brittany Higgins: public interest v right to a fair trial
Brittany Higgins, a ‘bubbly’ and ‘happy’ young woman, became withdrawn, her friends, family and colleagues told court. Composite: AAP The ongoing trial of Bruce Lehrmann in the ACT Supreme court for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in the Federal Parliament perfectly illustrates the power and the potential damage of publicity. The case is unusual […]
The power of circumstantial evidence
The recent conviction of Chris Dawson for the murder of his wife Lynette Dawson resoundingly displays the power of circumstantial evidence in reasoning towards verdicts beyond reasonable doubt. The fact that the trial was by judge alone and not a verdict returned by a jury permits a relatively rare view into the process of deduction […]
David v Goliath: The Criminalisation of Protest
Man against the machine! Capital v labour! Big business against the Individual! David against Goliath! Epithets of imbalance that could all equally express the crusade of climate protest against business and government perceived as permitting and protecting the ongoing pollution that wreaks havoc upon the natural environment and progressively propels the earth towards the tipping […]
The age of consent in allegations of sexual offending
In W.A. the age of consent is 16 years of age. This is not uniform across all Australian States and Territories. Equally, in W.A. there is no similar age consent defence. Again, this is not the position in all jurisdictions in this country. It may seem odd that there is not a uniform position in […]
The DNA Future scope: Massive parallel sequencing
One of the most significant and far-reaching changes in the last decade or two to the investigation of suspects and the and detection of culprits has been the collection and interpretation of DNA evidence by the police and it’s presentation as evidence in trials. ‘Massively parallel sequencing’ or ‘MPS’ offers the potential to predict the […]
Bail: the need for a rethink?
The sad and present reality is that a significant proportion of the current prison population in Western Australia is needlessly remanded in custody. This isn’t a criticism directed at the sentencing regime in this State in this instance, rather a comment on the huge remand prison population. Whether adult or juvenile, accused person’s awaiting trial […]
Digital Evidence
Increasingly, criminal allegations are either based entirely upon information contained within or revealed by an examination of portable digital telecommunications and internet communication devices. In the simplest terms on mobile smart phones. That this is the case, is of course, hardly surprising when you consider how much time we all spend communicating via a portfolio […]
