4 February 2009

Simon pre-judging?

| johnboy
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The Liberals’ Vicki Dunne is taking a shot at Simon Corbell for his comments about the alleged attempted escapees from the Belconnen Remand Centre:

    “During the interview, Mr Corbell said that Corrective Services and the Police were investigating the incident,” said Mrs Dunne.

    “However, he also made statements that could prejudice the court case that will be brought against the detainees.

    “One of the great maxims of our legal system is the presumption of innocence until a proof of guilt can be established beyond reasonable doubt.

    “What we have here, though, is the Attorney-General, the first law officer in the ACT, publicly stating his views on the guilt of the two detainees. Not only that, he presumed his views were also those of the government and Corrective Services.

With a heavy heart I wonder if anyone still cares about the presumption of innocence?

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Whether they were caught red handed is not the point, they get their day in court. Thats how it works. I cant beleive that an AG good get that one sooooooooo wrong.

I’d be interested to know, purely for interests sake, exactly what was involved in their gaining access to the roof. Did they pick a lock, dig a tunnel, climb a wall and scale razor wire? Or just walk through a door and up some stairs?

I’d wait to hear what the defence lawyers have to say on that.

There’s potential for a lot of mitigating circumstances to be raised.

Escaping lawful custody. Even though they may not have intended to go further than the rooftop, they still escaped the designated confines of the BRC.

guilty of what Kramer?

Well, it’s pretty bloody obvious that these guys are guilty. The only way they are getting out of it is either a legal technicality, or a lenient judge (methinks the latter).

We have laws so we don’t need common sense.

Have Corbell’s comments been reported anywhere other than the interview? I certainly care about the presumption of innocence, but I can’t really comment on this particular instance, since I don’t know what he said.

Crikey had an article just yesterday (free) by Margaret Simons on the Victorian media getting considerable leeway in breaching sub-judice contempt rules.

Vicki, put down the (pitch)fork.

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