By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On the evening of 6 September 2014, Zhen Fang stabbed his friend Ting Huang to death, in a frenzied attack whereby he inflicted 20 wounds to the victim’s head, neck, trunk and upper extremities. The two work colleagues had been drinking beer and smoking a substantial amount of ice… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Danny Lim is a well-known Sydney activist who can often be seen around town wearing sandwich boards that express colourful political messages. On 29 August, the NSW District Court judgements quashed a conviction of offensive conduct that he’d received in the Local Court in February last year. Mr Lim… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Last week, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (NSWCCA) determined that a precedent followed by the state’s courts had become a “judicially imposed constraint”. That rule stated that a person convicted of a substantial drug supply must be sentenced to full time imprisonment unless there were ‘exceptional circumstances’. Over… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In the early hours of 30 November 2013, Timothy Kiernan entered the caravan of a man he was planning to rob. The two men spoke for an hour about Kiernan’s current partner Ms Higgins, who was parked outside in a car waiting to make the getaway. During the conversation,… Read more »
Hundreds of thousands of Australians are summonsed for jury service each year. It is an important civic duty which is vital to the administration of our criminal justice system. But research suggests that for most who are empanelled, the experience can be stressful and even cause lasting trauma. Juror Stress According to Paula Agor, director… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Between March and June 2014, Matthew “Fatty” Stapleton was under investigation by the NSW police for mid-level supply of methamphetamine. Officers were granted the power to conduct a controlled operation, and recordings suggested that Mr Stapleton and Shane Mooney were associates. On 16 May 2014, Stapleton contacted an undercover officer and… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In April 1787, the British parliament passed the New South Wales Courts Act, which created a court of criminal judicature in the soon-to-be founded penal colony on the eastern coast of NSW. The Act provided that the court was for “the trial and punishment” of “outrages and misbehaviours” deemed “to be treason… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 19 April 2014, Ms Soo Jong Kim responded to a knock at the door of the Lidcombe unit she was living in and found Stephen Shine demanding to speak to her husband. Ms Kim told the 58-year-old to wait while she went to the bathroom, but Mr Shine entered… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The trial backlog of the NSW District Criminal Court has been at a critical level for years. In 2015, the NSW Law Reform Commission (NSWLRC) described the “sheer volume of trial matters” pending before the court as “overwhelming”. At the end of July last year, there were 2,042 criminal trials and… Read more »
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim Tens of thousands of Australians are forced to represent themselves in court every year – often against powerful and well-funded prosecution teams – as it becomes increasingly difficult to receive assistance from community legal centres and legal aid commissions. The National Association of Community Legal Centres estimates that it turns… Read more »
