“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 Gene Gibson, 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.”
Gene Gibson was an innocent young man just minding his own business,until one day he stumbled across the body of the victim Josh Warneke. For this case , its been chosen to find three ways that our legal system has failed Gene with their own rules,the ones chosen where (right to silence,equal treatment before the law and adversary trials.Lastly one rule they decided to follow which was right to appeal.
the background behind this case was that Gene Gibson a 21 year old aboriginal male from Broome and he suffered from cognitive impairment,was poorly educated as well. One day on the 12th of February he was driving down a road drunk with his father until he drove past a dead corpse which happened to be Josh. Gene was terrified out of his mind but just kept driving trying to not recollect what he saw. Sadly in the year 2012 Gene was prime suspect of the death of Josh Warneke and taken to court.
Right to silence is one of the most commonly know rules in court and meant that the accused does not to speak against their will unless its their address,D.O.B and any crucial important information.In Genes trials they did the exact opposite and made him say things against his will and understanding . They also made him say “i killed the white man” even though he pleaded he didnt but was verbally abused into saying he was the killer.
Adversary trials,means that the court is split into almost like a “referee and player” situation, this means that the judge should not favour one side more then the other and only come to a final choice from hard evidence given.But whereas for Gene,the judges barely heard his voice and what he was trying to say,instead they listened to the first piece of information the police gave in which wasn’t even concrete.
Lastly equal treatment before the law, this rule states that no matter gender,race,sexuality etc everyone should be treated equally and no different.This was not used on Gene, they knew gene has issues and was not fluent in English but knowing this they still went along with the interrogation and didnt give him an option for a translator. Its also clearly stated that if police have to work with aboriginal people they have to be knowledgeable in their culture and be respectful about their ways in life, but in Genes instant none of the above where used and he was given racist and under knowledge policemen to work with.
The one principle that they followed was right to appeal which means that the accused has the right to go to a three panel judge prove their innocence while using their own evidence. The victims mother, knew from the start that Gene was not the murderer of her son,so she went to the three panel with her own evidence and proved that he was innocent and showed them the courts mistakes.
Gene walked again as a free man on 2014 after two years of being wrongly imprisoned.He was given 2.5 dollars as compensation from the government and a personal apology from Jack Ollgaurd (the main police on his case),and all eleven policemen who helped investigate got suspended for their behaviour on the case.So in the end Gene had finally won a long two year fight against the law.
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