What is this about
Dr Xanthe Mallet delves into six cases of miscarriages of justice in the Australian Justice System, including innocent victims of police who didn’t investigate properly, scientists who should never have been trusted and a even a lawyer.
What else is this about
This is a book about the cases you may have heard about, and some you may not have heard about, before Mallet delves into the intricacies of theses cases, the details that aren’t in the public eye. She dissects them with a professional detachment that makes it all the more scarier and compelling.
Blurb
The good, bad and downright rotten parts of Australia’s criminal justice system are put on trial by Dr Xanthé Mallett. With her clear-eyed logic and objectivity, this compelling book identifies reasonable doubts which must keep prosecutors and defence lawyers awake at night.’ Hedley Thomas, host of the Teacher’s Pet podcast
We all put our faith in the criminal justice system. We trust the professionals: the police, the lawyers, the judges, the expert witnesses. But what happens when the process lets us down and the wrong person ends up in jail?
Henry Keogh spent almost twenty years locked away for a murder that never even happened. Khalid Baker was imprisoned for the death of a man his best friend has openly admitted to causing. And the exposure of ‘Lawyer X’ Nicola Gobbo’s double-dealing could lead to some of Australia’s most notorious convictions being overturned.
Forensic scientist Xanthé Mallett is used to dealing with the darker side of humanity. Now she’s turning her skills and insight to miscarriages of justice and cases of Australians who have been wrongfully convicted.
Exposing false confessions, polices biases, misplaced evidence and dodgy science, Reasonable Doubt is an expert’s account of the murky underbelly of our justice system – and the way it affects us all.
One of the most compelling things about Reasonable Doubt is that Dr Xanthé Mallet is an internationally renowned forensic scientist and criminologist.
With that background, she delivers a book that is not coloured too much by emotion, but is determined to focus on the facts of each case to show just why these cases are indeed miscarriages of justice. Now, while I say she isn’t coloured too much by emotion, she does let readers her frustration, and amazement that such shoddy work was believed and took the freedom of these innocent people.
I am actually finding this book hard to review because it astounds me in the worst way that these innocent people spent so much time in jail for things they didn’t do, with only their closest friends and family believing in them. Those things that our media, our life experience tells us to trust — the justice system, police, science — are the untrustworthy elements that ruined so many people’s lives — those that languished in jail for things they didn’t do, and the family and friends of those left behind who trusted these systems to get justice for those they have lost.
The cases Mallet covers in the book run over 36 years of the Australian justice system, covering murder, coerced confessions, bad prosecutions and more:
Wayne Butler and the murder of Cecilia Douty
Kelvin Condren : an Aboriginal man who was coerced into giving a false confession. Search for his name in that article and prepare to grit your teeth because he had an alibi and still went to jail.
Andrew Mallard: wrongly convicted murder, spent 12 years in jail before a journalist, with the help of a politican fought for the truth
Henry Keogh: spent 2 decades in jail for a crime he didn’t commit because of the science put forth by a discredited pathologist
Khalid Baker: convicted of murder despite his best friend confessing to the crime. This case.
Lawyer X: a lawyer who was an informant for the police, while a lawyer for criminals.
For those cases that hinge on the science, Mallet took the time to explain why science can be fallible and can be wrong — which granted, some of which did go over my head.
But, that is the determination and skill of this — to draw readers in, to help them understand just how things went so badly for these victims of injustice, and how they were freed.
I had to pace myself reading this, finishing a chapter and taking a break because the wealth of detail to digest was so unfamiliar to me. But that’s what makes this book worth your time — it’s going to challenge your expectations of things you may have always taken for granted — the trust in the systems that govern our life, because those systems come with (some) people who take shortcuts and don’t value the truth of events.
Wow, I love the sound of this book. The topic is awful, of course. Wrongful convictions make me so mad but it would be super interesting to read about.
It really is — and frustrating too. And mindblowing.
I can see why you had to pace yourself. Unfortunately, I think the same problems exist everywhere and much more often than we think. If it does not affect us, we don’t even know about the depth of the injustice. Worse, sometimes we don’t even care. Here in the States, we are having to confront some of the problems with the police and the judicial system…and it feels almost insurmountable.
Your’e right, it is everywhere, and happens more often than we realise. Books like these bring the stories to light.
The injustices in the world are really astonishing and sad, aren’t they?
YES, I entirely agree Lark. This book just blew my mind.
Fascinating! I haven’t heard of these cases but I agree that it is astounding that people can be found guilty when they’re not. I’d be interested to know what the case against them was.
Exactly — the author goes into that aspect too, as much as she can within the constraints of this format.
Definitely a tough topic to read about because injustices are so frustrating and heartbreaking, but it sounds like a powerful read and an important one too. Great review!