Conclusions to the trials of both George Pell and Bruce Lehrmann have increased the public’s distrust in our legal system, writes Paul Begley.
Source: Pell and Lehrmann trial verdicts have shaken public confidence
Category: Justice
Fighting the System is far more effective than simply another case heard and judged.
Brittany Higgins has vowed to fight for a better justice system after reports she plans to launch a compensation claim against her former employer and a Coalition minister.
Source: Brittany Higgins looks to fresh legal action after trial dropped
A prosecutor’s decision to drop charges against the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins in a parliamentary office has sparked calls for changes to how the justice system supports complainants.
Source: Higgins’ story sparks reform conversation – Michael West
Daryl Maguire “has been charged with criminal conspiracy over allegations he carried out a lucrative cash-for-visas scheme while he was sitting in the NSW parliament.”
This makes our Justice System seem more a moot game between lawyers so far removed from reality on which a jury is expected to choose a winner. There seems there will be no winners only losers who will walk away apart of course from a justice system whose members will have been overpaid to do what they have defined as work but appears more like theatrics. Unfortunately is there a better alternative?
It is for those making the accusations and bringing the charges to provide evidence and prove every element of the alleged crime, to a standard that is ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ and, if a doubt reasonably based, exists in the mind of any one of them, then the accused must be acquitted : that’s how the system works.
Source: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt ! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Senator Cash a Senior Minister in the Morrison Government expects her sworn evidence to be believed.
A jury also heard Senator Cash did not know about the rape accusation until two years after it had allegedly occurred.
Mining giant Santos has been ordered to shut down a major drilling operation after it was found that local Tiwi Islanders had not been consulted. Dr Binoy Kampmark reports.
Source: Santos loses landmark legal battle against Indigenous rights
The fifth circuit’s action points to another threat posed by Trump. Many of his judicial appointments were to appeals courts, which have an even greater influence in shaping public life in the US than district courts. He placed six judges on the fifth circuit – more than any other president before him – in a move which effectively neutralized moderate conservatives on the panel and gave extreme rightwingers the controlling hand. He managed to seat a similar number on the 11th circuit, which is likely to play a critical role in hearing appeals arising from Trump’s battle with the justice department over the Mar-a-Lago search.
The judges described mandatory minimum sentences as wrong in principle, particularly given it wasn’t open to courts to consider sentencing options outside of jail.
They required judges to be instruments of injustice, imprisoning people when not warranted, and inflicting more severe punishment than a proper application of a sentencing principle could justify.
“This blunt, oppressive sentencing regime is contrary to the public interest and incompatible with modern sentencing jurisprudence,” they said in a judgment published on Thursday.
Victorian appeal judges have derided the state’s mandatory sentencing laws, saying they force them to be “instruments of injustice”.
Source: Victorian sentencing laws force ‘injustice’ say judges
For years Trump threatened anyone ready to speak out against him with money or the courts. He was the most practised Don in the country with 4000 court cases to prove it. However, the Jan 6th Committee hasn’t been bought or a court it’s simply there to gather the facts for the American legal system to decide whether charges should be brought. However, Trump while President made every effort to swing that system his way. The question remains just how much and solid must the evidence be against Trump be for an indictment to be made?
Donald Trump famously joked that he was so popular with his fans that he could literally get away with murder.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, he bragged while campaigning in Iowa back in 2016.
Never mind the voters. Here we are, 18 months after his presidency, staring at clear evidence that Trump led a criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2020 election and the constitutional duties of Congress. He intentionally incited a violent mob that he knew was armed to mount an attempted coup on Capitol Hill.
We need a criminal investigation into Donald Trump | Richard Wolffe | The Guardian
We need a criminal investigation into Donald Trump | Richard Wolffe | The Guardian
NEW YORK (AP) — New York prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s business dealings have convened a new grand jury to hear evidence in the probe as the previous panel’s term was set to run out, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press Thursday.
Source: New Grand Jury Seated As Trump Criminal Probe Continues | HuffPost Latest News
Even the billionaire former CEO of UnitedHealth was able to buy his way out of his financial crimes by paying a few hundred million dollars. It’s the norm, not the exception, in America’s executive suites. We should not have a two-tier justice system like this in the United States. It’s time to end Rich Man’s Deals and hold people with well-stuffed money bins to the same level of accountability as the rest of us.
Source: Cosby Got Trump’s Sweetheart Deal | The Smirking Chimp
On Friday 4 June, Kristo Langker, producer of YouTube series Friendlyjordies, was arrested by the NSW Fixated Persons Unit for allegedly stalking Deputy Premier John Barilaro. Xenophon Davis partner Mark Davis, who is representing Mr Langker, released a letter written by his client on 19 June:
Source: An open letter from Friendlyjordies producer Kristo Langker
There’s a strategy followed by oligarchs worldwide when they are caught out. Alan Bond , Rupert Murdoch and Weinstein revert to feeble old men who buy their way out of trouble. Is this their legal advice then what does it say about justice and the legal systems we operate under. Trump’s jailed co-conspirators were just lackeys he promised to protect but didn’t.(ODT)
via Weinstein reaches $65 million settlement with accusers and creditors
A Tale of two States
Paid for your crime and did your time yet? Not if you’re Indigenous, Working Class or belong to any other minority but Middle Class, White and Christian. Andrew Bolt with a history of guilty charges against him will tell the world that you can’t be trusted if you speak out on Q&A or protest on any other platform reinforcing this cultural bias in our justice system yet maintains he’s an exceptional victim.(ODT)
Victoria is the only state or territory in Australia that does not have a spent convictions scheme, which allows for minor convictions to be wiped from someone’s record after a period of time with no offending.
Old convictions holding back Aboriginal Victorians, inquiry told
Today, Marshae Jones is being charged with manslaughter for being pregnant and getting shot while engaging in an altercation with a person who had a gun. Tomorrow, it will be another black woman, maybe for having a drink while pregnant. And after that, another, for not obtaining adequate prenatal care,” said Yellowhammer’s Reyes. “We commit ourselves to making sure that Marshae is released from jail on bond, assisting with her legal representation, and working to ensure that she gets justice for the multiple attacks that she has endured.”
Proposals for Justice:
El Chapo – The “Drug Lord” has been found guilty of numerous charges and will likely serve the remainder of his life in a maximum security prison in the United States of America.
The Sacklers – The “Kings of Opiates” have never been prosecuted and it is unlikely they will ever be so. To the extent possible a legally recognized court should be duly empaneled to hear the cases of these degenerates and upon lawful conviction each and every one charged from men, women and children of mature age ought to be publicly punished for their crimes in the most extreme fashion.
All Roads Lead to Railroading
Needless to say, The Sacklers will never be rebuked for their actions. They are Billionaires and their millions of victims are poor or middle-class at best. Given the realities of the governmental system of the United States there is no chance whatsoever the laws will be changed to hold the guilty to account.
See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/opinion/142285-elchapo/No more low-level, impoverished, ignorant suspects with few if any recourse can be railroaded into prison while the Sackler Filth walks free with impunity concerning their American Blood Libel.
This should be done in every condition in every case in every courtroom throughout the land until the Sacklers – each and every one – have been brought to trial for their far more pervasive and vastly greater detrimental crimes against the citizenry of the United States and residents of this Earth.
In other words, no one goes to jail until the worst of the worst go to jail – Herein Lies The Path To Justice.
A lawyer is supposed to be an officer of the court, and a defence counsel is supposed to argue the client’s case within the law to force the prosecution to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Yet there were a handful who crossed the line. They became gang members, advising on how to launder drug money, complicit in attempts to pervert the course of justice and prepared to intimidate witnesses. Some became romantically connected to the clients they represented.
via Informer 3838: The day the lawyer turned informer jumped for joy
Ten years after the behavior of over-leveraged and fraudulent banks created a global financial disaster that resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in losses; a multi-trillion bailout using public money; and millions of people losing their homes to foreclosure, but saw not one high-level financial executive go to jail, a man in Florida has been sentenced to a 20-year prison term for stealing $600 worth of cigarettes from a local convenience store.
And when did we start assuming guilt on the basis of an anonymous and unsubstantiated complaint, while denying the alleged defendant any access to due process and natural justice?
This entire situation stinks like a dead cod left in the sun.
Or, as Shakespeare more eloquently put it:
‘Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides …’
~ King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1.
via Parliament and the STC: What not to do about workplace sexual harassment
According to PeerJ Computer Science journal, an algorithm written by scientists from the University College London, University of Sheffield and the University of Pennsylvania allows an Artificial Intelligence algorithm to give a verdict with seventy-nine percent accuracy in human trials. This complex system is one of a kind, and has solely been developed to understand case …
Source: European Courts to Use Artificial Intelligence to Pass Sentence
Freelance correspondent Ben Bohane goes on patrol in Manila, where 200 drug dealers and users have been shot dead in two weeks as part of the Filipino leader’s war on drugs.
A video of an Aboriginal child’s early interaction with the justice system should never have been used to confect outrage with no regard for his welfare.
This is a story of desperation, a saga that stretches across half a lifetime and in which no one has actually done anything wrong yet but where a soul-destroying injustice is poised to happen unless one man does the right thing.
Source: You be the judge: should this man be thrown out of Australia?
Feature Articles
Justice for Sale – Part 1: Declining Faith, Rising Police Violence – Censored Notebook.
JUSTICE FOR SALE- PART 2: FROM ACQUIESCENCE TO PROFIT – Censored Notebook.
JUSTICE FOR SALE – PART 3: GREED BREED’S CORRUPTION – Censored Notebook.
JUSTICE FOR SALE – PART 4: Corruption and Abuse, the Remnants of Greed – Censored Notebook.
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/6/exclusive_deported_palestinian_scholar_sami_al
Days after his deportation from the United States, the Palestinian activist and professor Sami Al-Arian discusses the end of his ordeal as the target of one of the most controversial prosecutions of the post-9/11 era. Sami was accused of ties to a militant group, but a Florida jury failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the 17 charges against him. After prosecutors refiled charges, Sami chose jail time and deportation rather than face a second trial. For much of the three years following his arrest in 2003, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement and reportedly abused by prison staff under conditions Amnesty International called “gratuitously punitive.” In a broadcast exclusive, Sami joins us from Turkey for his first broadcast interview since being deported. We are also joined by his daughter Laila Al-Arian, a Peabody Award-winning journalist based in Washington, D.C.
Pope Francis says the poor need a roof over their head and work, but he’s not preaching communism. Source:
POPE Francis has delivered an off-the-cuff, mini-encyclical on the poor, labour injustices and the environment, saying he’s not preaching communism but the Gospel.
FRANCIS’ remarks to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, delivered on Tuesday in his native Spanish, ran for more than six pages, single-spaced. It was one of his longest speeches yet and a clear sign that the issues are particularly close to his heart.
olddogthoughts 