Criminal - Civil Liberties Australia

Bike-riding equation comes out negative?

4 January 2024 4 January 2024

Much-ballyhoed bike ’safety’ claims look somewhat different when subjected to a ‘whole-of-life(style)’ analysis by dedicated research Colin Clarke. Do helmets lead to immobility and obesity, at a greater cost to public health than accepting accidents will happen whenever you poke your nose into the great outdoors? Why have $15 fines become $240 (when they should be about $35) and become a new way for police abuse by selecting poor citizens for harassment?

Oz needs dedicated wrongful convictions body

1 September 2023 1 September 2023

Each month produces new stories of judicial errors, forensics misunderstandings, and failures-to-disclose by police and DPPs which amount to a log of systemic errors leading to wrongful convictions. Throughout Australia, there’s a growing call for a Criminal Cases Review Commission. Academics Hamer and Dyer explain the issues.

Canadian court orders lawyers to own up to AI

3 July 2023 29 June 2023

Artificial intelligence looms everywhere. A Canadian court has told its lawyers they must disclose when they have used AI in submissions. How many years away do you think it is that AI will actually decide innocent or guilty, and the penalty involved?

All wrongs should be righted: O’Gorman

7 June 2023 7 June 2023

Throughout Australia, liberties and rights campaigners are using the Kathleen Folbigg pardon to highlight the need for a criminal cases review commission. Here, eminent civil libertarian and lawyer Terry O’Gorman explains why a CCRC is needed, and how one for Australia as a whole would work.

Acquitting Sue Neill-Fraser in Tas should be next

7 June 2023 7 June 2023

CLA is delighted modern forensic science has freed Kathleen Folbigg from jail and the the guilt of murdering her babies. Now it is time that up-to-date forensics in 2023 re-examine the Tasmanian case of Sue Neill-Fraser for previously tested and never tested evidence samples. SNF served 13 years in jail, is out on monitored parole for the next 10 years…and continues to maintain her innocence in what CLA believes was a wrongful conviction.

Social justice: 8 factors increase jail risk

18 April 2023 18 April 2023

Research by two eminent UNSW academics has proven that Australia has ‘a criminal justice system that is far from just’. In simple words, they outline the problems clearly and precisely, and call on governments and agencies trhoughout Australia to become more accountable for their actions, and inaction.