In this project, we learnt about the principles of justice that uphold Australia’s legal system, such as the presumption of innocence, an impartial judiciary, and the right to legal representation. I studied the case of John Button, and analysed how these principles were both upheld and violated in this case. After writing an essay on the topic, we were required to incorporate feedback and edit the essay so that it was fit for online publication. This essay is the end result of that editing process. It demonstrates my ability to take feedback, and to refine a piece of written work to produce a professional result.”

Our legal system aims to follow a set principle of justice but sometimes they fail to follow them. In the John Button case it was an injustice by the courts but in the end he did achieve justice. The principles they failed to uphold were innocent until proven guilty, burden and standard of proof and equal treatment before the law. The principles that were supported was right to silence and right to appeal.

John Button- 1963

John Button was a 17-year-old man in 1963. He was wrongly accused of murdering his girlfriend, Rosemary Anderson. John and Rosemary had been fighting that night, Rosemary refused to get in John’s car and stormed off. Later that night John went looking for her and found she had been hit by a car and was bleeding unconscious. John took her to the hospital and later found out she was dead.

Innocent until proven guilty means that any person accused of a crime is assumed innocent, this way even if you have committed crimes in the past you are assumed not guilty. This is important so everyone can have a fair trial. John Button did not have this right and was assumed guilty as he was Rosemary’s boyfriend and they had been arguing the night of the murder. Since John was assumed guilty with no evidence he was questioned and beat for hours and eventually agreed to sign a confession, but he was in a state of shock, not a good and reliable headspace to sign the confession.

Burden and standard of proof means that it’s up to the prosecution to prove the accused is guilty with evidence. The standard of proof is the surety that the accused is actually guilty meaning that the judge and jury must be 99 % sure the accused is guilty. This is important so they don’t wrongly accuse people. In this case they didn’t use this principle because the police did not find any evidence to prove John guilty other than the signed confession. John was not mentally stable to sign the confession, but the judge and jury did not know this.

Equal treatment before the law means that every person no matter their race, religion gender etc is treated equal. This is important so that people are not treated differently because of things they can’t control. This again was an injustice in the John Button case.  John was not treated equally although he was a straight white male. Since he was Rosemary’s boyfriend, he was treated differently than another suspect would have been even though there were no other suspects.

Right to silence means that you have the right to not speak during your case investigation and trial. This is also important for people if they do not feel comfortable speaking. In the case John did have the right to silence and chose not to use it. He did not know about the right to silence principle. John was only 19 and very distraught so it was probably not the best idea for him to speak.

Right to appeal means that a person convicted of a crime has the right to submit an appeal. An appeal is an application to the higher courts to re look at your case if you believe the verdict was incorrect. This is important for the accused to have another chance to be found innocent. In Johns case this principle was used but also was not. It was used because after serving 5 years in prison John’s appeal was looked at and he was found innocent and released in 1968, but it was not used as well because there was a delay in the courts and after submitting many appeals, they only looked at it after 5 years, meaning John had to spend 5 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. After finding John not guilty They found Eric Edgar Cooke guilty.

Eric Edgar Cooke, 1963

The John Button case did have many injustices but as John was found innocent, he still had justice. John was paid a large compensation of $460,000 for this injustice. As a result of this trauma John now suffers from many mental health issues. Although this was a terrible injustice, this is an unlikely thing to happen as the courts strive to achieve justice.