Kirby, Michael --- "Forensic Evidence: Instrument of Truth or Potential for Miscarriage?" [2010] JlLawInfoSci 2; (2010) 20(1) Journal of Law, Information and Science 1
[*] Text on which was based a public lecture delivered at the University of Tasmania in Hobart on 14 September 2010.
[**] Formerly Justice of the High Court of Australia (1996–2009); member, Arbitration Panel, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, Washington DC (2010–); Honorary Professor of Law, University of Tasmania.
[1] ALRC, Report No 2, (Interim, 1975).
[2] McKinney v The Queen [1991] HCA 6; (1991) 171 CLR 468 and the cases there recorded. They included Driscoll v The Queen [1977] HCA 43; (1977) 137 CLR 517; Wright v The Queen (1977) 115 ALR 305; Carr v The Queen [1988] HCA 47; (1988) 165 CLR 314 and Duke v The Queen [1989] HCA 1; (1989) 180 CLR 508.
[3] Cf Kelly v The Queen [2004] HCA 12; (2004) 218 CLR 216; Nicholls v The Queen (2005) 219 CLR 196, at 208 [10], 237–238 [98]–[100], 257 [150]–[152], 275–276 [214]–[217]; cf at 309–310 [332]–[335]; Carr v Western Australia [2007] HCA 47; (2007) 232 CLR 138.
[4] J D Watson and F H C Crick, ‘Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acid: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid’ (1953) 171 Nature 737–738.
[5] Described in J Fantino, ‘Forensic Science: A Fundamental Perspective’ (November 2007) 74(11) Police Chief.
[6] [2005] HCA 68; (2005) 224 CLR 125.
[7] Mallard v The Queen (24 October 1997), noted (1997) 191 CLR 646.
[8] Colleen Egan, Murderer No More: Andrew Mallard and the Epic Fight that Proved his Innocence (Allen & Unwin, 2010) 200.
[9] [2008] HCA 18; (2008) 236 CLR 293. The earlier decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal in South Australia is reported: R v Gassy [No 3] [2005] SASC 496; (2005) 93 SASR 454.
[10] [2007] HCA 47; (2007) 232 CLR 138.
[11] R v Button [2001] QCA 133, [20] (Williams JA). See also K Edwards, ‘Ten Things about DNA Contamination That Lawyers Should Know’ (2005) 29 Criminal Law Journal 71, 72–73; P Mugliston, ‘DNA admissibility and appeals’ [March/April 2008] (85) Precedent, 40.
[12] Victoria, Inquiry into the Circumstances that Led to the Conviction of Mr. Farah Abdulkadir Jama, 6 May 2010 (The Hon Frank Vincent QC). See also Jason Gregory, ‘Taking on Faith Value’, (September 2010) Law Institute Journal (Vic), 24.
[13] The story is told in Milanda Rout, ‘How the “CSI Effect” Sent an Innocent Man to Prison’, The Australian (Sydney), 14 May 2010, 29.
[14] ‘High Court Dismisses DNA Challenge’, ABC News (online), 18 May 2010 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/18/2902903.htm> .
[15] United States, Research Council of the National Academies, Strengthening Forensic Sciences in the United States: A Path Forward, Report of the Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community (National Academies Press, 2009).
[16] New York v Wesley 533 NYS 2d 643, 644 (SCt. 1988).
[17] Edwards, above n 11, 10. See also at 77; cf L Weathered, ‘A question of innocence: Facilitating DNA-based exonerations in Australia’ [2004] Deakin Law Review 13.
[18] Ruth M Morgan et al, ‘Quartz grain surface textures of soil and sediments from Canberra Australia: A forensic reconstruction tool’ (2010) 42 Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences 169.
[19] Research suggests that ‘jurors are 33 times more likely to convict in cases when prosecutors introduced DNA evidence than in similar cases where no DNA evidence was introduced’: P Mugliston, above n 11, 41.
[20] Tofilau v The Queen [2007] HCA 39; (2007) 231 CLR 396; R v Grandinetti [2005] 1 SCR 27; (2003) 178 CCC (3d) 449. See also Re Application by the Chief Commissioner of Police (Vic)[2005] HCA 18; , (2005) 79 ALJR 881; (2004) 9 VR 275; and A Ashforth, ‘Should the Police be Allowed to use Deceptive Practices’ (1998) 114 Law Quarterly Review 108.
[21] Edwards, above n 11, 83 citing Queensland Crimes and Misconduct Commission, Forensics Under the Microscope (2002) 5–6.
[22] Ibid, 83 citing ‘7:30 Report on the Button case’.
[23] Quoted in Rout, above n 13, 29.
[24] Mugliston, above n 11, 41.
[25] E Murphy, ‘The New Forensics: Criminal Justice, False Certainty and the Second Generation of Scientific Evidence’ (2007) California Law Review 721, 722.
[26] K John, ‘Cracking criminal gene code’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 11 April 2008, 24.
[27] The arrangements for consent or other lawful authority for procuring DNA samples from a suspect are also important: J Gans, ‘Much repented: Consent to DNA sampling’ [2007] UNSWLawJl 35; (2007) 30 University of New South Wales Law Journal 579.
[28] See Murphy, above n 25, 774–775.
[29] Mallard [2005] HCA 68; (2005) 224 CLR 125, 150–157 [64]–[88]. The passage cites Lawless v The Queen [1979] HCA 49; (1979) 142 CLR 659; R v Apostilides [1984] HCA 38; (1984) 154 CLR 563, 575; Grey v The Queen (2001) 75 ALJR 1708, 1712 [16] and decisions of courts in North America, Britain and Ireland and in international tribunals.
[30] See C Merritt, ‘National DNA review has all the evidence of a good idea’ The Australian, 16 April 2010, 20.