SHOULD THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY RULE BE RETAINED?
The rule of double jeopardy stands different within each individual state throughout Australia. Dating back in common law to the sixteenth century, the basic guideline to double jeopardy prohibits abuse of process through disallowing prosecution for the same or substantially similar offences in a case after an acquittal. (Austlii [1], 2016) However, case of R v Carroll, held in the High Court, initiated a law reform throughout parts of Australia, addressing the idea of different charges being laid against the same action to avoid the literal rule of double jeopardy, yet ensure justice be resolved within doubted acquittals. (FindLaw, 2016)
In the case of Raymond Carroll, his original trial was heard
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In effect to bypass this rule, Carroll was charged by the DPP with perjury by the claim that he had lied under oath, giving testimony in his murder trial that he did not kill Deirdre Kennedy when evidence proved otherwise. Great dispute arouse from these newfound charges, as the defense made application that the charges executed abuse of process. The Justice Muir denied this accusation, as the perjury charges where based upon different evidence used within the murder trail, therefore withholding breach of double jeopardy. However, the case was then appealed to the Queensland Court of Appeal in which the original conviction was overridden due to the establishment of abuse of process committed by breach of the concept of the double jeopardy rule. The trial was appealed once more to the High Court, where the judge administrated that on the basis of abuse of process if Carroll were to be convicted of perjury it would overturn the acquittal for murder and therefore be inconsistent with the double jeopardy rule. (Burton Kelly, …show more content…
While the long lasting legal disputes had come to a close, the public riot that resulted from the case instigated a rule reform. The Council of Australian Government proposed new laws nation wide regarding the guidelines of double jeopardy, which only two jurisdictions, Victoria and ACT, refused to sign. (ABC News, 2016) South Australian’s Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 was altered in 2013 to allow second and further appeals against convictions and sentences. The bill enabling to do so also placed limitations upon double jeopardy, allowing DNA evidence to bypass the rule of double jeopardy and be taken into consideration. (Kellie Toole,
The prosecution rejected this Plea and withdrew the original plea since Titlow would not self-incriminate in the case against Billie. Without the testimony of Titlow, Billie was acquitted. When Titlow was tried for murder in the first degree the court could not get a conviction for first-degree murder but was able to get a conviction for murder in the second degree, and would be facing 20
The Canadian case I selected in which a wrongful conviction occurred was of Robert Baltovich. In 1992 Baltovich was wrongfully convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Bain and he was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for the next 17 years (Innocence Canada, 2016). This case took place in Scarborough, Ontario and Baltovich spent eight years behind bars for a crime he did not do. Baltovich got a retrial and he was finally released on April 22, 2008. Bain’s murder still remains a mystery, her car was found with a bloodstain on the back seat but her body was never discovered.
Firstly, this case set precedent that when a criminal proceeding is initiated against an accused
The Double Jeopardy clause in the Fifth Amendment protects people from being tried for the same case multiple times. An example of this is if someone is being tried for murder and is found not guilty by a jury, that person cannot be tried again with a different jury until they are found guilty. In the film Double Jeopardy they set the precedence that if Libby kills her husband at the end of the movie, she couldn't be charged with murder because she had previously been tried and convicted of his death. Unfortunately the double jeopardy clause would not protect her.
All clauses are adapted to the needs of the country at the present time. Change is always necessary to explore better and newer options. The double jeopardy clause of the 5th amendment hasn’t significantly changed since the constitution was ratified, but rather the way viewed. The Supreme Court's rulings in Palko v. Connecticut, Benton v. Maryland and Heath v. Alabama show that there has been a noticeable trend towards various interpretations of the same clause over the last hundred years.
Can the state try you twice for the same crime? Well that is where Double Jeopardy comes in under the protection of the Fifth Amendment. Double Jeopardy basically means that the court can’t find a defendant guilty for the same crime twice. There are several reasons why there is double jeopardy protection. First to protect that person from financial, emotional and social repercussions.
On the 14th of October 2011, Mr Rayney had submitted an application for a trial which only involved a judge without a jury present. This was due Mr. Rayney assuming that a strong bias had been manifested pre-trial as a result of the subjective publicity revolving around the death of his wife, Corryn(The Conversation, 2012). Therefore, the jury and any member of the public would already have preconceived views in favour of Mr Rayney being guilty of murdering his wife. The trial was successful for Mr Rayney where he was acquitted of murdering his wife. Similarly, this issue is somewhat common as it had also occurred in the case Evans v The State of Western Australia [2011] WASCA 182, in which both appellants had made appeals after being convicted for murder.
Wrongful convictions are a problem that most government officials won’t admit. The United States and other countries such as Australia have been susceptible to these miscarriages of justice. This can arise from a snowball effect of scenarios such as witness misidentification, perjured testimonies, coercive methods of interrogation, prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective counsel. These are some of the reasons that can potentially lead innocent people to be convicted of crimes they did not commit. The thousands of exonerations in the United States has caused concern for other nations to reevaluate their criminal justice system.
On August 28th 1955, a fourteen-year-old black boy was brutally murdered by two white men because he allegedly flirted with a white woman. The accused were acquitted, and walked away free from a second trail due to a legal practice preventing someone to be recharged with a crime that has already been pressed against them- double jeopardy. Double jeopardy should be subject to revocation if a subject in question for a crime admits they are guilty or information providing evidence against an indicted person should arise. Complete double jeopardy gives guilty people freedom to confess, without repercussions, to the world. Their freedom from consequence is wrong because serious crimes should be payed for, their liberty puts others at risk, and victims and their families should be able to see their aggressor put behind bars for mental health reasons.
The term “Double jeopardy” indicates a person put through a second trial for an offense previously convicted or prosecuted for. The rule against double jeopardy is to prohibit double trial and double conviction and originally flows from the maxim “nemo debet bis vexari pro uno et eadem causa”. It is a procedural safeguard, which bars a second trial after the accused is acquitted or convicted in a full-fledged trial by a court of competent jurisdiction . It consists of two doctrines, namely autrefois acquit and autrefois convict , which aim at protecting criminal defendants from the tedium and trauma of re-litigation . History:
It can be argued that the jury was not a proper representation of his peers. Along with other factual errors surrounding Dixon’s false conviction,
According to the Double Jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a person cannot be prosecuted twice for the same crime. The movie of the same name, involves a wife, who is prosecuted at the beginning of the movie for the alleged murder of her husband. At the end of the movie, after it is learned that the husband framed the wife, she ends up killing him. As to whether the double jeopardy clause would apply in this situation, I believe it would.
However, the main affect this decision has on today’s society is the way justice must be carried out in the court of law and the way a person’s rights should be protected even if they’re guilty or
With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out.
One of the most serious crimes in United Kingdom is known as Infanticide. Infanticide means due to some social-economical pressure the mother kills her own child. Until 20th century the intentional killing of children consider as a murder. The Infanticide Act 1922 first created for mothers the lesser crime of infanticide, by the course of child birth if the state of her mind was upset and if the death involved a newly born child. Previously the law of Infanticide was governed by the Infanticide Act 1922 but now it is replaced by Infanticide Act 1938 .