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Katherine Knight Case Study

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Katherine Knight
1 OVERVIEW OF THE CRIME
On February 29th of 2000, after finally getting fed up with the constant assaults he endured from his partner; Katherine Knight, John price went to the Scone Magistrates court to take out an apprehended violence order (AVO) against Katherine, in a hope to keep her away from his kids and himself once and for all. Later that night, an unknowing Katherine Knight turned up to John Price’s house and they went on to have sexual intercourse. After this, Knight stabbed Price in his sleep, resulting in Price attempting to run away down the hall, this, however was an unsuccessful attempt and knight ended up stabbing him at-least a further 36 times. She then went on to expertly skin him, hanging his hide from …show more content…

Upon arriving at the house, Police found Knight in an induced comatose state from several pills she had consumed, they took her into custody immediately and she was sent in an ambulance to hospital.

2 ROLE OF COURT
After a minor delay in the commencement of the trial, due to the jury needing to be augmented because of the nature of the case, on the 18th of October, 2001, Katherine Knight stood trial in front of the Supreme Court of NSW charged with the murder of John Price. All though maintaining that she knew nothing about the crime, Knight pleaded guilty to this charge, which was accepted by the jury, meaning that the case proceeded as a sentencing hearing from that point forward.
Whilst being questioned, Knight mentioned that she had amnesia, which was why she had no recollection of the murder. Because of this claim, Knight was seen by 3 different Psychologists, who all said that she did not suffer from dementia, however she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but this disorder was not said to be the cause of her actions.
In determining the sentence, the defense claimed there to be mitigating circumstances consisting …show more content…

(2) A person sentenced to imprisonment to life for the crime of murder is to serve that sentence for the term of that person’s natural life.
The fact that Katherine Knight was sentence to life imprisonment for the murder of John Price reflects society’s standards in that nobody should get away with taking somebody else’s life, especially in the way in which Katherine did.

6 THE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM IN ACHIEVING JUSTICE
Once Katherine Knight pleaded guilty to the murder of John Price, the court was able to sentence her quite efficiently once all evidence was heard. The efficiency of this case and also the fact that Katherine Knight received the harshest penalty possible in Australia for her horrific crime shows how justice was achieved. Life imprisonment with no parole will stop Knight from being a further menace to society by eliminating her chance of re-offending. Anything less than this sentence would be seen as an injustice not only to John Price, but to the community as a whole due to the severity of the

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