Month: April 2021

Australia’s, legal system aims to achieve justice for every person in every case, in most cases they achieve justice but there are some cases they are unable to do so. In Australia’s legal system, they use a set of principles such as innocent until proven guilty and equal treatment before the law so that we can ensure that justice is achieved. In Lloyd Rayne’s case, these were not achieved. On the other hand, the independence of courts was achieved. Concluding with the case being dismissed in 2013.

Lloyd Rayney’s wife was killed on the 7^th of August 2007. Her body was found on the 15^th of august buried in king’s park. Her body was buried diagonally with the dead down which accelerated the decomposing around the neck which masked the cause of death. At the crime scene, about 200m from where the body was found they found a name tag from celebrity heads, and on one side of it said the queen and on the other side, it said Lloyd Rayney.

Firstly, equal treatment before the law, states that irrespective of their gender, race, sexuality, identity, or ability have the right to have legal representation in court. This is important as it gives everyone a fair chance to be proven innocent at their trial. Equal treatment before the law was not supported in Lloyd Rayney’s case because the detective of the case said that Lloyd Rayney was the “prime and only suspect of the case”. Which was not equal treatment because what the detective said went all over the media which ruined his reputation. Lloyd Rayney was refused the right to an appeal which was not fair because everyone has the right to have an appeal, but Lloyd Rayney was not allowed to have an appeal which was not fair.  Meaning that no matter who was on the jury he would not be able to get a fair trial as this creates bias.

Secondly Innocent until proven guilty states that until there is enough evidence to prove that you are guilty then you are innocent. Innocent until proven guilty is important because if you were guilty until proven innocent then a lot of people would be put into jail because they were falsely accused as guilty. Innocent until proven guilty was not supported in Lloyd Rayney case because before Lloyd Rayney had his trial, he was considered guilty because of the detective of the case saying that he was “the prime and only suspect” as well as the fact that his marriage was falling apart, and his wife threatened to ruin his career which gave him motive. Which made people believe that he was guilty. As well as the media saying things such as “Lloyd Rayney is the prime and only suspect” which influenced people that he was guilty because everyone believes the media. Because of this Lloyd Rayney only had a judge at his trial because a judge must be nonbiased.  Once he had his case, he was proven innocent because there was not enough evidence to link him to killing his wife.

Thirdly Independence of the courts is the courts being separate from parliament, government, and the media. Independence of courts is important because it will help less people get falsely accused. This was supported in Lloyd Rayney’s case. In Lloyd Rayney’s case, he was meant to have a judge and a jury however because of the media which was influencing everyone that Lloyd Rayney was guilty which ruined his reputation, they could not get a jury that was not biased against Lloyd Rayney. To make the trial fair they only had a judge so it could be a fair trial without a biased jury.

In Australia, our legal system aims to achieve justice for every person in every case, and most of the time they achieve this but there are some where they are unable to. In Lloyd Rayney’s case, he had equal treatment before the law and innocent until proven guilty which were not supported, and independence of courts which were supported. In this case, it did not follow the principles of justice fully because equal treatment and innocent until proven guilty were not supported even though the independence of courts was supported. Our legal system aims very hard to achieve all the principles of justice for all but does not always achieve.