Letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph

02/07/2010

The following is a letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph from the chair of the Bar Association's Criminal Law Committee, Stephen Odgers SC, concerning an article by Janet Fife-Yeomans under the dealine "Killers set free". The letter was published today, 2 July 2010.

The two articles by Janet Fife-Yeomans in the Daily Telegraph present a misleading picture of the criminal justice system in NSW and may encourage yet another "law and order" auction in this State.

Under the headline "killers set free" the story states "juries acquit up to half of all defendants charged with murder".

The number of acquittals at trial does not indicate that the system is not working. The vast majority of people charged with criminal offences plead guilty and some of those acquitted will have been found not guilty by reason of mental illness, but are detained for treatment.

No doubt, on occasion, a person who committed a crime pleads not guilty and is given the benefit of the doubt by a jury.

Equally juries in NSW can wrongly convict, however the system is designed to minimise this. That is why guilt must be proved "beyond reasonable doubt".

The relatively high rate of acquittal in sexual assault cases is explained by the fact that generally, it is one person’s word against another’s, without corroborative evidence to support the prosecution case.

No system of criminal justice can be perfect. The rules of evidence are under constant review to try to get the balance right and ensure fair trial. The jury, an important part of our criminal justice system and entrenched in the Federal Constitution, has recently been the subject of important reforms.

However, any process of reform is not assisted by misleading and alarmist articles such as these.

Stephen Odgers SC Chair, Criminal Law Committee New South Wales Bar Association

**2 July 2010 **

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