“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.”
– Albert Einstein
The justice system is placed upon our society as it has the means of protecting the innocent, to provide a fair world and order across the nation. This helps to uphold peace and is seen as a vital part of our world. However it is unfortunate that despite all the principles of justice put in place to ensure justice there are still many flaws in our system. Many are treated unfairly and are not given justice by this system making it even more problematic. John Button experienced this through this ‘nightmare’ case he went through.
February 9, 1963, on a dreary night, (17 year old) Rosemary Anderson storms off along a road in Perth as her boyfriend, John Button, calls out to her insisting that he drives her back home. Determined to get home by herself after an argument she had with Button that evening at his (19th) birthday, Button soon loses sight of her. Trailing behind her waiting for his girlfriend to soon give into the cold, dark night and return to him he soon faces what started off this “nightmare”. As he finally catches up to her and in front of him is a horror scene revealed. He looms over his girlfriend’s lifeless body drowning in a pool of blood on the side of the road. He quickly takes her to the Royal Perth Hospital, and he waits hours to see the return of his girlfriend back into his arms. However, instead he was greated by the tragic news of his girlfriend’s death at 2:30am the next day. Button later gives into a sensation of guilt and distraught and signs a confession to a crime he did not commit. He is later imprisoned that same year, and stays behind bars for over the next 5 and a half years (despite his original sentence of a decade) . 1964, serial killer Eric Cooke confesses to the crime however is dismissed by the police. Protesting for his innocence Button desperately tries to win the public over however it was not until 1992 in which someone finally listened to his cries. Journalist and author Estelle Blackburn met up with Button to help write her book “Broken Lives” which was to be published in 1998. She wrote about Button’s story of being wrongfully convicted for a crime Cooke committed. February 25, 2002, Button’s conviction was finally quashed by the Western Australian’s Court of Criminal Appeals due to the new cumulative weight of evidence given. It took 39 years after Ms Anderson’s death for his name to be cleared and in April 2003, he was offered $460,000 AUD in compensation, which was at the time the largest sum of money offered to a wrongly convicted person in the state.
Why Button was convicted and why it took him 39 years to clear his name was due to the principles of justice not being upheld throughout his case. Most notably the court not abiding the principle of high quality evidence, the right to silence and the judiciary being independent and impartial. Button was not served justice by our justice system and there will still be many flaws within this system, preventing it from being able to fully serve us all equally as of the principles not being upheld.
High quality evidence means having the access to accurate evidence and for it to not be unkept from the court. Everyone involved within a case must give accurate information and must not withhold the truth from the court. This principle of justice was not upheld throughout Button’s exhausting years of proving his innocence. The court was only given 2 pieces of evidence to prove him guilty which consisted of his confession and the dent in his car. Button explained to the appeals court that his car’s dent came from an accident which happened 3 weeks before the hit and run murder of his girlfriend. The car that was involved in the accident also had a dent in it that matched the accidents description and even examined/ inspected results proved for both cars dents to match the scenario. However, this piece of evidence towards his innocence was considered as an irrelevant piece of information by the police and was withheld from the court during the original trial. Dr Neil Turner examined and treated Anderson during her time in hospital after the crime and claimed that her injuries were not ones of those caused by a vehicle like Buttons. Serial killer Cooke even admitted to being Anderson’s murderer however the police still accused Button of the crime. Even after all this evidence given to the police, it was dismissed by them and not presented to the court. Button’s trial did not uphold the principle of justice to access of high quality evidence.
The right to silence refers to the right to remain silent when one is suspected of a crime. This includes the right to decline to answer questions when interviewed by police. This was not upheld throughout Button’s case and was especially compromised throughout his time being questioned by police authorities. It was reported that police had “punched” and “beaten” Button while questioning him to convince him to sign a confession. His pressure from physical abuse and the mental distraught and sense of guilt, as he was not able to protect his girlfriend, led him to give in and sign the confession. This is definitely unexpectable and especially now if one experiences physical (and mental ) violence from police during a questioning period the public will not remain silent and will take action. Button was not given justice here as he was forced into creating a fate that was not his to pay for.
The judiciary being independent and impartial was heavily compromised during Button’s case. The principle ensures that the judiciary shall decide matters after an impartial assessment of the facts and their application to the law, without outside and improper influences, direct or indirect, from any source. Despite the ‘efforts’ this was not upheld. Media and the social influence heavily positioned Button to be guilty convincing the jury and court to agree. Media and social influence a big problem as the jury and court may feel pressured from the public to make a certain outcome to please the rest of society. This is a still an ongoing issue as it is extremely hard to keep the jury and court blinded and impaired from outside influences. Button fell victim of media influence and was unable to go against despite all the logical evidence he had to prove his innocence.
Button, convicted of manslaughter of his girlfriend in 1963 due to a false confession of pleading guilty despite his innocence, finally having his conviction quashed 39 years after. Button was not served rightfully by the justice system as the principles of justice were not upheld throughout his case resulting in him being accused in place of Eric Cooke. The principles of high quality evidence, the right to silence and the judiciary being independent and impartial were not upheld and heavily compromised. This really does challenges how strictly it should be abided by so it can fully fulfill its purpose in helping our society.