The Dingo Trial

Principles of justice

Several principles are in place to offer everyone a fair trial, no matter, your race, gender, or nationality they are ignored for you to get a fair trial. These are important for the law to be enforced fairly. An example of this means that everyone is alike in the eyes of the law, meaning that no one should be treated differently and always be treated the same as others. Another example would be that everyone has a right to appeal if they are found guilty. The case I picked is the case of Azaria Chamberlain, who was a young girl who was taken by dingos and allegedly murdered by her mother. The media accused her mother and the media was responsible for making the general public biased against Lindy Chamberlain(her mother), even the Australian police force was biased against her. this leads to the first violation, a right to a fair hearing. With all the media coverage the jury’s opinion was quickly turned biased. Also, she wasn’t given the presumption of innocence. With the corruption of the Australian police force, she was presumed a criminal even before she was convicted.

The Violation of the Presumption of Innocents

the police failing to presume her innocence had greatly affected Lindy’s case in many ways such as immediately arresting her without evidence. the investigation that result in Lindy’s conviction, started from a gone wrong camping trip where lindy’s daughter Azaria Chamberlain went missing from her tent. when the police arrived they could see no evidence that a forced entry was made so they immediately decided to go with their theory of Lindy Chamberlain was the culprit. the police officer at the scene had overstepped quite a lot of the evidence that was right in front of their noses and were so sure that it was her that they decide to go straight to the media to inform them of what they thought was happening. Ultimately these police officers blew the entire case by violating the presumption of innocents and persuading an entire country that she was guilty. this proves the amount of corruption in the Australian police force.

The effect of not having a fair hearing

The principle of a fair hearing was violated during the Lindy Chamberlain case. A fair hearing means that an individual gets a neutral judge and jury that isn’t biased in any way. It was really obvious that at least the jury was biased in the favour of the prosecution. The huge amount of media coverage surrounding the case had ultimately reached the jury. This had really effected her chances in the fight for justice as the people that would ultimately decide her fate had already made their minds on the facts they heard from the media instead of what was presented to them in court. The actions of the jury and media completely ignored a basic principle such as a fair hearing shows how much this principle was ignored.

Summary

Overall this case was really, biased against Miss. Chamberlain as the corrupt police and the vast amount of coverage in the letter resulting in the jury becoming biased against her had really, turned the case into an unfair and had violated the most basic of principles of justice. In my opinion, Lindy’s case was coordinated very poorly and much drama could be avoided if the police and media weren’t so slow and incompetent in the way that they respected the principles of justice. as a result, she was unjustly accused of destroying her entire life. she later sues the government for gaining 1.3 million dollars, but she later stated that nothing would ever replace what she had lost.