As outlined above, the large number of issues Aboriginal witnesses face highlights the necessity for providing adequate mechanisms for overcoming them. Hence, it is only fitting to highlight the number of provisions available in the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) that provide for the manner of questioning witnesses and evaluate whether they are sufficient. The first of such relevant provisions is s26 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) which gives the court control over the questioning of witnesses while s29 provides the manner and form of questioning witnesses and their responses. As mentioned in the introduction, the operation of these provisions allows witnesses to present their evidence in narrative form pursuant to section 29 (2) . The narrative …show more content…
Nevertheless, these sections are useful as one way of helping overcome the barriers of communication for Aboriginal witnesses . In addition, another relevant provision of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) that has been argued to help overcome communication and linguistic barriers is s30 which gives witnesses the right to an interpreter unless they can ‘speak the English language sufficiently ’. In spite of this, an issues arises as to what constitutes the speaking of ‘English sufficiently’ due to the fact that, as mentioned previously, most Aboriginals in NSW speak ‘Aboriginal English’, where there are slight differences in the grammatical structure or expressions used . On the other hand, s31 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) relates to the questioning of deaf and mute witnesses in court. Consequently, for Aboriginal witnesses who suffer from hearing impairment this provision is effective in helping them overcome this communication issue as it additionally, does not restrict their right to an interpreter . While it seems that the aforementioned provisions of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) have certainly provided adequate mechanisms to overcome communications, there is still more to be
John Bell made a complaint against Harry Brandy who was his colleague at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Bell made a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission alleging verbal ill treatment and intimidating conduct by Brandy. HREOC found that Bell’s complaint was justified and
The two forms of traditional Aboriginal law were ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’ laws. Sacred laws were entrusted to the elders, teaching Aboriginal customs, acceptable behaviour, and adequate use of the land. Secular laws focused on the responsibilities of individuals. There were also ‘secret’ laws and different people...
The use of eyewitness statements and testimony’s can be a great source of information, but can also lead to wrongful convictions. Due to eyewitness testimony, innocent people are convicted of crimes they have not committed. This is why the wording of a question is important to consider when interviewing witnesses. Due to the fact that eyewitness testimony can be the most concrete evidence in an investigation, witnesses may feel they are helping an officer by giving them as much information as possible, therefore they may tell them information that is not entirely true, just to please them. This is why there are advantages and disadvantages to using open and close ended questioning at different durations of an interview. The way you word a question may impact the memory of a witness, this is because a person cannot completely memorize the exact occurrences of an event.
It would not be inconsistent with the principle of equality before the law that, where members of the Aboriginal race have special needs, those should be recognised by special rules laid down by the law. Further, the law is flexible enough to allow the courts to consider the special situation of an Aboriginal party where that is relevant. As the courts have recognised, the sentencing of Aboriginal offenders presents particular difficulties. Judges, in an attempt to do justice in discharging the difficult role of sentencing tribal and semi-tribal Aboriginal persons, have gone further. Clearly the ordinary criminal law is capable of facing these difficulties. It is neither necessary, nor desirable, to apply to the Aboriginal peoples the rules of their customary law rather than the general law. The attempt to uphold Aboriginal customary law is one aspect of the notion that the Aboriginal peoples will benefit if they continue to be treated as a class separate from the rest of the community, which must necessarily be a dependent and disadvantaged class.
A judge when sentencing an aboriginal offender must consider the circumstances that led the offender to commit the crime. A typical place where the background factors lead a person to commit a crime is Africa. In Africa, most people commit crimes as a result of severe poverty, lack of employment opportunities and lack of formal education. Most African are not born with silver spoon in their mouth and due to the hardship in Africa, we see people committing crimes such as robbery in order to survive. Chapter 14 of the textbook explains the life style of a person in an Aboriginal community. After colonization, the aboriginal people were
Indigenous People. In evaluating the Legal System’s response to Indigenous People and it’s achieving of justice, an outline of the history of Indigenous Australians - before and during settlement - as well as their status in Australian society today must be made. The dispossession of their land and culture has deprived Indigenous People of economic revenue that the land would have provided if not colonised, as well as their ... ... middle of paper ... ...
LaPrairie, C. (1998). The new justice: Some implications for aboriginal communities. Canadian Journal of Criminology. 40 (1), 61-79.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) is designed to protect and empower individuals who make lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care and treatment. The law applies to individuals aged 16 and over.
Obstacles Faced by Deaf People in the Criminal Justice System. American Annals of the Deaf, Volume 150(3), 283-291. Vernon, M. (2010). The 'Path of the Earth'.
The public interest defence was created by the deformation act 2013, to protect defamatory material. The concept of public interest can be a vague term. What one might consider public interest someone else may not? For example, some people believe celebrity gossip is the public interest. The public recognises the term public interest and it is used as a defence for media intrusions of privacy. Everyone has the right to privacy, but sometimes this is not the case. Depending on the person or the organisation this can be invaded depending on the degree of the public interest. In order for something to be in the public interest, the subject has to be of interest for a collective amount of people not just for an individual. The breaches of exposing privacy would be exempt if it was to be to expose crime if an investigator was to breach someone’s privacy but they were exposing crime, which would be of public interest, and then this would be acceptable. Protecting the public health or safety of the public is also an exception, protecting the public from being misled. Also disclosing someone’s failure or likely failure by any obligation they have. In order for these reasons to become except the publication will need to justify why this would
To demonstrate the issues that come about in eyewitness testimony, this paper will take a moment to examine R. v. Steven Murray Truscott. Truscott was being charged for the rape and murder of Lynne Harper. This case was fairly confusing as there were many eyewitnesses both for and against Truscott. Truscott claimed that Harper had asked him to give her a bike ride to the intersection of Country Road and Highway 8, where he dropped her off and left. On his way back he claimed to have stopped at a nearby bridge where he could see the intersection, and watched as Harper entered a grey car with a yellow license plate. Three separate witnesses actually claimed that they did in fact see Truscott around the road and bridge at the times he claimed
Barsh, R. 2005. Aboriginal peoples and the justice system: Report of the national round table on Aboriginal justice issues (Book Review). Great Plains Research, 359-362.
Compare and contrast the arguments that have been advanced for and against the incorporation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Law in the criminal justice system.
In the court of law, eyewitnesses are expected to present evidence based upon information they acquired visually. However, due to memory processing, presenting this information accurately is not always possible. This paper will discuss the reliability of eyewitness testimony, its use in a relevant court case, and how the reasonable person standard relates to eyewitness testimony.
The criminal investigation process is the primary role of state and federal police officers in Australia, though the focus of this essay will be on the NSW Police Force. The police are a law enforcement body, and in regards to the criminal investigation process they investigate crimes, make arrests, interrogate suspects and gather evidence. The criminal investigation process has mixed effectiveness as a means of achieving justice. Though measures have been implemented to encourage accessibility, the criminal investigation process is still somewhat hindered by public perception of the legal system. Though the criminal investigation process is designed to balance the need for individual rights with achieving justice, in practice it faces widespread