Australia is the world’s only democracy that fails to offer statutory legal remedy for those wrongfully imprisoned
t’s sort of like when you think of Atlas holding up the planet,” says Terry Irving, an Aboriginal man from northwho spent four-and-a-half years in prison for a bank robbery he did not commit, and half his life trying to carry that weight on his angular shoulders.
Irving was released from prison by the high court in late 1997, after the state of Queensland conceded he had not received a fair trial. The chief justice, Sir Gerard Brennan, said he hadand that it was “a very disturbing situation”. Irving was driving home from the Oceanic when he first heard about the robbery on the 5pm radio news. The suspect was Filipino, in his early 20s and driving a purple Toyota, the radio report said. Towards the end, it gave the registration of a car that had been seen in the area.
The next he heard about the robbery was eight weeks later, when two officers drove out to Atherton, where he was working, to ask him about the car. On the morning of his trial, in December 1993, Irving was led through the foyer of the courthouse in handcuffs. He says he was frustrated that morning – his lawyer had pulled out at the last minute due to a conflict in his schedule, and sent a colleague in his place.
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