So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
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So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-12/azaria-chamberlain-inquest-findings/4065466 It took 32 years, four court cases and six years in jail for the distraught innocent mother for this case to unravel.
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Forums » Open clinical » Psychiatry » So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
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So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
posted at 12/6/2012 5:42 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-12/azaria-chamberlain-inquest-findings/4065466 It took 32 years, four court cases and six years in jail for the distraught innocent mother for this case to unravel. Dingoes eat babies, wallabies and rabbits. We are not immune from animal attack any more than thinking sharks only eat scuba divers because they think they are seals. There have been quite a lot of dingo attacks on humans since that case. This case divided the nation and even families. Many thought the mother did it as a sacrifice to God as she was a Seventh Day Adventist. It became a movie with Merril Streep as Lindie Chamberlain and all along many of us thought she was truthful. I am glad we don't live in the USA as she may have been executed by now and only the dingo would be alive.
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Re: So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
posted at 12/6/2012 7:32 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 959
First: 15/7/2011 Last: 21/5/2013 |
In Response to So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-12/azaria-chamberlain-inquest-findings/4065466 It took 32 years, four court cases and six years in jail for the distraught innocent mother for this case to unravel. Dingoes eat babies, wallabies and rabbits. We are not immune from animal attack any more than thinking sharks only eat scuba divers because they think they are seals. There have been quite a lot of dingo attacks on humans since that case. Posted by Odysseus Thankyou for this odyyseus. What a terrible failure of the judicial and appelate courts. This poor woman (and family) must have had a dreadful experience to say the least. It reinforces my belief that capital puniishment can never be in a legal system, If it was then Lindy Chamberlain would probably not be around to see justice finally being done. I was very moved by the Coroners emotions showing as she read her findings. I hope the witch hunt against the family will now end. I heard about this case as a child and to think now at 44 she is exhonerated. |
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Re: So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
posted at 12/6/2012 8:39 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1264
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 20/5/2013 |
Agree with you kirked - in any legal system that truly cares about justice (as opposed to retribution) you cannot have any punishment or sentence which cannot be reversed or admonished at a future date. I am just astonished that she was charged in the first place given that there seems to have been little to corroborate the accusation and piles of reasonable doubt. |
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Re: So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
posted at 12/6/2012 11:21 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
Thank you for your comments, colleagues. There were some interesting aspects of this case. Firstly it tapped into religious bigotry. Secondly Lindy hid her emotions and as a woman of faith, the logical thought was that God would have a hand in this and she would be vindicated. Thirdly she was feisty and no darling of the media who seized on the opportunity to use her as an object of scorn. They went for her jugular. Dingo jokes abounded and the print media and televion and radio went into a feeding frenzy. My late father often said this quotation which I hold to be true; "The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding small." Sextus Empiricus, a physician and philosopher of the 3rd century AD who lived in Athens and Alexandria. I like my father's version as he was a Greek scholar. Note the use of two flat adverbs. I admire her. She told the truth. She suffered. She was vindicated. With regards the media, "Who sups with the devil must needs a long spoon." Freedom of the press has with it, responsibility and a desire to seek the truth. Unvetted it, like all power, can be the power of the devil. Rupert Murdoch is a former countryman who may appreciate both quotations. |
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Re: So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
posted at 12/6/2012 4:34 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 642
First: 2/2/2011 Last: 21/5/2013 |
I hope this case will pave the way for all other mind boggling cases elsewhere in the courts. keeping in view the crucial importance of the case the media has paid much attention to this case. |
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Re: So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
posted at 12/6/2012 4:41 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
Everybody, especially the legal professionals should become more aware of the fact that 'no innocent should be a victim of injustice under any circumstances'. |
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Re: So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
posted at 12/6/2012 9:44 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
This case shows that one is at a disadvantage to have a novel case in a court of law or a workers' compensation case. Don't be the first case in a medical or legal case report. It might not even see print such is the system. Since the Chamberlains case, since 1986 there have been 14 reported dingo attacks including three deaths in children including a nine year old boy in Queensland. I was once involved in a court case which was novel and the case lost because of closed minds and cynicism. Since then there have been more such cases. The plaintiff was sentenced to five years in jail. I was appalled but I will not elaborate. I saw then that the law is not about justice but the best debating team and feeds on prejudice, power, class and more prejudice. Man as a group is narcissistic and anthropocentric e.g "sharks shouldn't eat people mentality". This principle underlies the Chamberlain case and also why we think that a global ecological catastrophe which could convert Earth into another Venus or Mars will ever happen. We are just too important and we are in charge of the cosmos. Man remains the centre of the universe even though the Earth goes around the sun etc. Perhaps some may think, God will not let it happen as we were created in His image and the Garden of Eden viz. biosphere is our sandpit to play in even if we break all the rules? Religion existing belief systems (eg about dogs) are the fatal flaws in the case of the death of a baby in the desert. Some even said her name meant "Sacrifice in the wilderness." As our famous bushranger, Ned Kelly said on the gallows, "Such is life." Why did this take so long to finally unravel? What moved the goal posts? That is the crux of the matter and not that the dingo did the deed.
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Forums » Open clinical » Psychiatry » So ends one of the biggest legal sagas in Australian history.
