Saturday, November 15, 2008

ABC Radio National,The Law Report: The sentencing of Lex Wotton

"...criminal lawyering is a very complex process and it's never been about truth and justice, it's about perceptions, and I dare suggest that the acquittal had as much to do with that community forgiving Senior Sergeant Hurley and all police that have to work in these extreme circumstances, to forgive them for a death that occurred, because you've got to remember, a senior sergeant, in his evidence in the Coronial Inquest, accepted he killed Cameron Doomadgee..."
Andrew Boe – Queensland criminal lawyer, counsel for the Palm Island community in the coronial inquiry which followed Mulrunji Doomadgee's death.

Indigenous man Lex Wotton has been sentenced to six years in prison, with a non-parole period of two years, for being a ringleader in the riots on Palm Island that followed the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee in 2004. Lex was charged under anti-rioting legislation that carried a maximum penalty of life in prison. Meanwhile, concerns have been raised about the move to give bravery awards to the police officers who responded to the riot.

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