Among the people in Australia that work for the law try their best to uphold the 9 principles of justice which are 9 rules that needed to be carried out so any case can be judged fairly and the case is completely fair so no side has an advantage. However, occasionally not all principles of justice are not held and then becomes cases of injustice where people are not treated correctly and get wrongly convicted this is exactly what happens in the case I studied, the Mickelbergs
In 1982, on the 22nd of June 49 gold bars were stolen from the Perth Mint. Police rushed and instantly accused the 3 brothers Ray, Brian and Peter. They posted on the media and in the paper that the Mickelbergs were guilty when this was not the case. They were taken from their homes without a legal rep to be beaten naked until they confessed. The 3 brothers were imprisoned from 1983 until 2004 and four when they appealed. The case still remains unsolved to this day and the 49 gold bars is not worth 3.7Million ASD.
The first non-supported principle of justice is equal treatment before the law. This means that everyone no matter race, gender, sexuality, etc will be treated equally so no one has an unfair trial. The reason this is extremely important is so that someone is not given an unfair trial and is judged differently so the judge or jury doesn’t say “this person is black their probably guilty”. The time when this principle was not followed was when they were taken to be stripped naked and beaten until they confess. the reason this denies the principle of justice is that during all of this they did not have a legal representation when they had a right to that could have stopped this and they would not have confessed.
The second non-supported principle of justice is innocent until proven guilty. This means that every person is innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt by the prosecution. The reason this is important is so that if it is hard to prove he is not guilty he would still be classified as guilty even though he was not proven to be guilty. This was not displayed when the police posted about the case in the paper and in the media that they were definitely guilty so they were in a bad situation.
The third non-supported principle of justice is the right to silence. This means that every suspect does not have to talk at all except say his/her name, date of birth, and address. This is important because the defendant otherwise the defendant would have to say a lot to help the prosecution and the prosecution would not have to say anything to help the defense. This was not supported because when they were taken to be beaten naked they were forced to say things that they didn’t have to cause them to be imprisoned. This was completely wrong and illegal and these things do not happen as much nowadays.
This case had so much wrong with it but one of the few supported principles of justice was the right to an impartial judge or jury. This means that the defendant does not have a bias judge or jury or a previous or ongoing relationship, this could be either good or bad. This is important so that the judge does not say they are guilty or no guilty even though it is obviously the wrong design because he could have a previous relationship and not want him to go to jail. This was the case in the Mickelbergs because they had a fair trial with a non-bias judge and jury even though they were proven guilty.
The people of the law try tirelessly to keep it fair but occasionally they are minor or major slip-ups as having displayed to you only one case of injustice where the full fairness and purity of the Australian legal system was not shown. the likelihood and amount of times this happens is minimal to slim we as Australians have a great legal system and a great country. 🦘
