"The Chamberlain Case highlighted many of the weaknesses in the Australian legal system

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Christina Muthurajah

Citizen and the State

The Case of Lindy Chamberlain

“The Chamberlain Case highlighted many of the weaknesses in the Australian legal system.”  Do you agree with this assessment? Give examples to illustrate your answer.

The case of Lindy Chamberlain was very significant in Australian legal history as it involved the conviction and imprisonment of an innocent person for infanticide. This is occurrence should never have taken place and demonstrated the weaknesses in the Australian legal system.

 A legal system is meant to be sturdy and never failing system that the public can put its trust ad faith in but this time it fell apart and wrongly convicted an innocent mother, wife and friend.

Something needs to be done to ensure the unnecessary imprisonment of an innocent does not occur again. There were many issues in the legal system that let Lindy Chamberlain down. Firstly the expensive court system that disadvantages those who cannot afford the best. Secondly, the inadequacies of the police force. The third issue was the public bias and finally the contaminated jury.

Cheap Lawyer

“Justice only comes by the expenditure of large amounts of money and support of many friends”. This statement is true. Not many people in the country can afford the best lawyer and it is true to say that if you have the money to pay for a brilliant lawyer than you will have a good chance at winning any case. Not many people can afford to go as far in appealing as the Chamberlain’s did. Despite the money provided for them from the church, the Chamberlains could still not afford a good lawyer. Instead they could only hire a young lawyer from their Seventh Day Adventist group by the name of Stuart Tipple. Tipple was only a young man, a country lawyer and the Chamberlain case was his first criminal case in private practiseStuart Tipple took the line that the dingo went south. Presumably he felt that white witness Derek Roff would fare better in a white mans court than the right evidence. They had the support of their friends, and the church supported them financially yet still the legal system let them down.

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Police Bias

Police have bias as they are involved first hand with the investigation and sometimes cannot be objective. They would not have had the Chamberlain’s best interests at heart. Instead, the force would have been worried about their town, its people and thought of the Chamberlains as outside visitors, a family of “weird” religious beliefs. There was difference between how Azaria’s clothing was found and described by the two police officers Goodwin and Morris. The difference lay with how Goodwin found it and how Morris described it. The jump suit was found and photographed in a “ravage” condition. ...

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