The Case of the Mickelberg Brothers

Mickelberg Case

In 1982, a robbery had occurred in which 49 gold bars were stolen which weighed 68 kilograms which had valued at over $650,000. In the case, the police framed 3 brothers for the robbery and they were found guilty 7 times before the 8th appeal they were found not guilty. In this case, multiple principles of justice were broken such as the right to high quality evidence, the right to remain silent, and ect. Many years later, the police had admitted to faking evidence and beating one of the brothers to give them the evidence they had wanted. 

Principles Of Justice

There are multiple principles of justice which are designated to everyone in Australia but to no specific groups of people. These principles are applied to the court to make sure that everyone has an equal and fair chance in court. The principles of justice are important for a number of reasons such as, to ensure that everyone has a fair chance in the court, to ensure that there is no bias causing a much harsher or too small of a sentence or amount money. One of the most important principles of justice is the right to an appeal. This is extremely important as if the accused feels that the judge has made a wrong, biased, or unfair decision they have the right to have the opinion that it’s wrong and they can change the level of court and law to get another judge. Another important principle of justice is the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. This is a very important principle as this principle forces the judge or jury to not have made a decision before hearing the necessary evidence. Throughout the mickleberg brothers case, it will be shown that this was sufferely violated as it was founded that the police had faked evidence and used it against the Mickelberg brothers. This principle means that they can only use proper evidence to suggest that their case is correct. Another principle of justice that was broken was the right to remain silent. This principle means that you have to right to not give information or physical evidence that would effect the outcome of the trial. In the Mickelberg case this was violated as the police had created and made up a statement which they used in the trial. This principle is important as that if the evidence was fake or the evidence wouldn’t effect the trial, it would negatively effect the trial bias to the defendant. During the Mickelberg case, the right to a fair trial was supported as the Mickelberg brothers unfairly went to prison for 8 years, 6 and 1/2 years and 9 months, which as compensation they received $500,000 each. Throughout an investigation of the Perth Mint Swindle case, there were many principles of justice’s which were violated and supported as the police wasn’t doing their job correctly.

The right to a fair trial

The last main principle of justice that effected the trial was the right to a fair trial. This principle means that everyone has the right to a fair hearing without a bias jury or judge. This principle was supported as the Mickelberg brothers served their sentence in prison even though they weren’t guilty. Ray Mickelberg served 8 years of his sentence of 20 years, Peter Mickelberg served 6 and 1/2 years of his sentence of 16 years, and Brian Mickelberg served 9 months of his 12 year sentence before he had died of a plane crash in 1986. Since they had served many years of their jail sentence even though they weren’t guilty, as compensation each brother received $500,000 to say sorry for them serving their sentence. These examples demonstrate that whenever the government knows they had made a mistake, they would do their best to fix their mistake by providing them with wealth.