Description
Australia’s criminal justice system has an unrecognised serious problem with wrongful convictions. Readers may be aware of the cases of Kathleen Folbigg, Lindy Chamberlain, Andrew Mallard or David Eastman but there are many others. We estimate that in Australia 8–10 wrongful convictions leading to significant jail terms occur annually. Our book documents their multiple causes and now provides case studies of many disturbing examples.
This expanded second edition of Wrongful Convictions in Australia also covers new material including:
- the role that unconscious biases play in causing wrongful convictions
- the serious harms of wrongful convictions beyond those of imprisonment alone
- the absence of mechanisms for compensation and restitution
Because of human error, wrongful convictions are, and will remain, inevitable. Australia’s criminal justice system lags badly by failing to acknowledge the issue and not actively addressing it by, among other things, providing an accessible means of correcting them. We urgently need a national Criminal Cases (or Miscarriage of Justice) Review Commission for the independent review of possible wrongful convictions.
