This monograph analyses controversial trial outcomes (both civil and criminal) through a post structural feminist lens of narrative creation. It considers how narratives are constructed in trials and how the admission or exclusion of evidence can lead to the formation of distorted narratives that produce flawed outcomes.
The book discusses contemporary evidential challenges surrounding the societal and legal framing of ‘truth’ within the Anglo-American trial process. It applies a post-structural feminist approach to examine how facts and rules are interpreted through the construction of legal stories. Chapters are organised to address key themes in high profile cases from around the globe. These include the cases of George Cardinal Pell, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, Lawyer X, Brittany Higgins and Kathleen Folbigg. This book departs from previous publications, such as those with a traditional feminist perspective, in that it presents both sides of the distorted lens where a defendant is written into a story as both guilty and innocent. Its focus on cognitive and narrative processes provides insight into the role of narratives and evidence construction in the trial process, and how such processes are used by legal advocates.
This book would be of interest to scholars of legal psychology, criminology and socio-legal studies. It will also interest scholars and students of evidence law, especially those studying miscarriages of justice.
This monograph analyses controversial trial outcomes (both civil and criminal) through a post structural feminist lens of narrative creation. It considers how narratives are constructed in trials and how the admission or exclusion of evidence can lead to the formation of distorted narratives that produce flawed outcomes.
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
What Do We See and
Hear?..........................................................
The Power of Narratives.
Story Construction
The Legal Narrative
CHAPTER 1
Construction of Language and Facts: Illusion or Reality in The Courtroom?
Evidentiary Terminology and Concepts..
Relevance
Rules of Exclusions
The Presumption of Innocence
Burden of Proof ..
Fact-finding and Proof..
R v Dawson.
Pell v The Queen.
Depp v Heard.
CHAPTER 2
Rituals, Practice and Procedure: The Truth, the Whole Truth, Anything but the
Truth
Legal Rituals and Power.
Oaths and Affirmations
Judge or Jury?..........................
The Church, its Rituals and the Sexual Complainant
Pell v R..
Purpose of Appellate Courts.
The Robes .
Courtroom Distancing.
CHAPTER 3
Constructing the Defendant: The Three Faces of Eve
Mad, Bad & Sad
Translation as a means to produce meaning.
Women Who Kill..
Letby v Rex
Motherhood..
An Emerging Linguistic Science on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Baby Killer and Evidential Rules..
a) United Kingdom
R v Trupti..
R v Clark.
R v Cannings..
R v Anthony..
b) Australia
R v Phillips..
R v Mathey..
R v Kathleen Folbigg..
Constructing a mad, bad, mother
The Male Image..
The Diaries.
A Literal Translation.
Male Child Killers.
a) United States
Robert Leslie Robertson III v Texas..
b) Australia
The Queen v Robert Farquharson
Coincidence Reasoning.
Mothers and Mothering.
Australia: R v Kathleen Folbigg
R v Phillips
UK: R v Clark
R v Cannings
R v Anthony
USA:
The Male Image..
Lost in Translation
Narratives in Sexual Complainant Trials
CHAPTER 4
Expanding the Intersectional Approach from priest to movie stars
Intersectionality of the Defendant..
The Power of Questioning..
The Sexual Complainant
Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Ltd
What is seen, heard or perceived?.
The Movie Star.
Johnny Depp v Amber Heard.
Race
Flowers v States..
George Floyd
Changing Sides The Duality of the Mask..
Lawyer X..
Transgender and Bias
Tickle v Giggle for Girls
Social Platforms and Media Narratives: A Picture Paints a Thousand
Words
CHAPTER 5
New Linguistic Interpretations and Narratives
Science and Knowledge..
Assumptions about the Unknown..
Australia: R v Folbigg
Human Error or
Incompetence?.....................................................
Canada: Dr Charles Smith..
Debunking the Junk Science..
Reconstruction Evidence - The Queen v Robert Farquharson
Memory Science - Pell v The Queen..
DNA Exonerations - Ronnie Wallace Long
Digital and Virtual Reality..
Court Recordings Depp v Heard
The Podcast R v Dawson
Newspapers George Floyd
Television - Pell v The Queen
Text Messaging Lucy Letby
From the Micro to the Macro..
Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health Organisation..
George Floyd.
Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Ltd
Johnny Depp v Amber Heard..
CHAPTER
Developing A Different Dialogue
Understanding the Lens Through Which We See ..
The Requirement of Certainty
The Process of Generalisations to the Particular
Culturally Gendered Perceptions in Allocating Blame.
Social Media is the New Communicator
Jurors..
The Power of the Post-Structural Feminist lens
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Fiona C. Hum is Senior Lecturer, Monash University, teaching Evidence for over 20 years. Fiona is a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of Victoria, practising for many years prior to academia. Her research interests include evidence, wrongful convictions, discrimination and injustice issues.
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