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Invisible innocence: it happens here too

By Lynne Weathered - posted Friday, 13 May 2011


Yet the guidelines are a substantial step forward in promoting justice. In the US, forty-eight states have DNA innocence-testing legislation; in Austra­lia only Queensland and New South Wales have guidelines. More must and will be done, and these guidelines have started us on the right path.

Time is of the essence. The Queensland guidelines tacitly acknowledge that despite the state's sophisticated criminal justice system, wrongful convic­tions occur – and no one wins when an innocent person is incarcerated. These guidelines will finally allow some of the wrongly convicted people in Queen­sland to use DNA to prove their innocence.

Our students are a success, too. A system is made up of rules, but people make those rules. I am confident some of our students will be among those who will make a difference for the better when they join the workforce.

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As the film Conviction highlights, exonerations are never easy and almost always involve a long, hard-fought battle. Prisoners are some of the most disadvantaged and disempowered people in society, and those who claim innocence are easy to ignore. The project will continue to fight for proper investigation of claims, to correct errors and support reforms to reduce the potential for wrongful convictions. It will work to assist those who are wrongly convicted to make visible their innocence.

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This essay first appeared in Griffith REVIEW 32: Wicked Problems, Exquisite Dilemmas( Text Publishing) www.griffithreview.com

 



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About the Author

Lynne Weathered is a lecturer and convenor of the Griffith University Innocence Project, initiated and supported by Nyst Lawyers partners Chris Nyst and Jason Murakami. She is also a member of the board of the International Innocence Network. The views expressed in this article are hers, and not necessarily those of the project or network.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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