Latest / The Front / Mushroom jury: What’s going on?

Transcript

Mushroom jury: What’s going on? · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, July seventh, twenty twenty five. A thirty four
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: year old New South Wales man is in custody in
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Victoria after allegedly torching a synagogue in Melbourne. Over the weekend,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne was attacked by kefir clad protesters,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: prompting Jewish leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin nettan Yahoo
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to demand Anthony Albanezi take national action on anti Semitism.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: That's as pro Palestinians say Australia has failed to condemn
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Israel strongly enough over the war in Gaza. Home Affairs
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Minister Tony Burke says the incidents were an attack on Australia.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Hush COVID lockdowns were bad for kids. According to data
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: from the benchmarking exam Naplan, New South Wales, Victoria and
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the Act have all fallen behind Western Australia, which had
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the lightest lockdowns, and the results are most pronounced for
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: disadvantaged kids. Researchers say that could be because wealthy parents
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: had more time to supervise homeschooling. That's an exclusive live
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com dot au. It's
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the biggest trial of the year and now the most suspenseful,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: as the jury in Aaron Patterson's triple murder case enters
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: its seventh day of deliberations. What's going on? Legal affairs
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: correspondent Ellie Dudley joins us from Morewell in Victoria's Latrobe Valley.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: There's a ritual every morning in the Victorian time town
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: of Morewell. As the morning fog clears and the temperature
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: creeps up past zero and into low single figures, a
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: crowd of people trapes us towards the courthouse. Lawyers, journalists, magistrates, registrars,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: cops and regular people accused of crimes.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Everyone's very layered up, thermal layers, puffer jackets, beanies, scarves.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley's our legal affairs correspondent and along with one
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: of our senior reporters, John Ferguson, she's been part of
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: that crowd trapesing into the court every morning for the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: past ten weeks. It's the business of low level justice.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: People who've been charged with drink driving or offensive behavior
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: fighting in the Street small time burglary this morning, Monday,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: seven July. The thirty or so accused on the list
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: are overwhelmingly men, but the most recognizable accused before the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Latrobe Valley Law Courts is a woman, Aaron Patterson, a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: fifty year old mum of two from the nearby town
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: of lean Gath who's accused of a crime that's being
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: followed around the world, allegedly poisoning her estranged husband's four
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: elderly relatives with death cap mushrooms she allegedly foraged from
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the bases of oak trees around this very.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Woodland outside the courthouse in Morewell, the Latrobe Valley Law Courts,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: there's a really large courtyard which I imagine usually is empty,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: but at the moment it's packed with journalists, television crews,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: people setting up camp waiting for this verdict to be
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: handed down.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and one of attempted murder. The trial was initially set
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: down for about six weeks, but these things never quite
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: go to plan, and after two months of evidence and
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks of legal discussion, the judge and
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: lawyers for both sides summing up, the jury was sent
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: out to deliberate, Ellie, everyone I know is full of
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: curiosity about the jury's deliberations. So today we're going to
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: ask and answer some of the big questions. First, what
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: happens when the jury reaches a verdict.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: So, even when the jury reaches a verdict, they've been
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: told that there's a buzzer in the room that they're
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: currently deliberating in, they press that buzzer and that sends
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: a note to the staff of the judge to let
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: the judge know that a verdict has been reached. It's
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: the same process if the jury has a question that
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: they want to ask of the judge based on any
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: of the evidence that's been put before them throughout this trial.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, and if it's guilty, what will be the next step?
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: The next step will be sentencing. We know that when
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: it comes to sentencing hearings they're often quite drawn out.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: The judge, I imagine, will want to hear victim impact
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: statements and then Judge Christopher Biale will come to a
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: decision on how she should be sentenced and how long
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: she'll spend in prison.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: What about if it's not guilty, she walks free.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: So I imagine that it would be quite a frenzy
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: if she walks straight out the front of the courthouse
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: on the day. If she is found not guilty, she'll
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: be able to go ho We've seen photos already of
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: her house in Leengatha that's been wrapped up in a
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: thick black tarpauliny sort of material. It seems like it's
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: been wrapped, possibly multiple times to prevent anyone taking any photos.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Perhaps if that was the intention of her, if she
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: were to be found not guilty, and if she were
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: to return home.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: So what do we know about what's been happening in
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: that jury room?
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, Claire, it's the million dollar question. As a journalist
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: who's been down there for a long time, everyone's asking,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: you know, when are they going to come back? What
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: do you think they're thinking? But obviously we don't know.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So they're being sequested, they have no contact with the
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: outside world. They're in a complete total media blackout. They
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: get transported from their accommodation where they're all staying together
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: at a hotel, to court from Mondays to Saturdays, where
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: they sit and deliberate from ten thirty to four fifteen,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: with an hour and fifteen minute lunch break in the
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: middle of the day where they can't return a verdict,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: and then they get transported back at night. And so
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: they're not deliberating on Sundays, but they are deliberating Monday
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: to Saturdays, meaning that we could get a verdict at
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: any time on Monday through Saturday.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: The judge, Christopher Biale sent the jury out on Monday.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Here's a voice actor reading what he told the jury.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Ben you should only discuss the case with each other,
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: and you should only do that when you are all
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: together in the privacy of the jury room here in court.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Don't discuss when you're at the hotel. Don't get into
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: little groups and have discussions about the case.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: On Monday morning, the jury begins its seventh day of deliberations.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Is that unusual, No, it's not unusual, particularly in a
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: case like this when they have seen so much evidence.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: This was a trial that was supposed to last for
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: four to six weeks and I think we got almost
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: up to ten weeks of evidence for them to look at.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: So no, it's not unusual. And we can also see
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: that in past cases that had been decided. So Kelly Lane,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: who was accused of murdering her baby. The jury took
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: six days to convict her. George Pell who was accused
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: of child sex abuse, the jury deliberated for more than
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: four days before he was convicted, a conviction that, as
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: we know, was later overturned. For Northern Territory police officer
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Zachary Rolfe, it took just seven hours for him to
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: be acquitted of murdering Kumen Jay Walker.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: In another high profile matter, where Bruce Lehman was accused
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: of sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins, he pleaded not guilty. The
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: jury had been deliberating for five days when one of
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: them was caught with unauthorized materials in the jury room.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: The judge told the court in that matter, an official
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: was in the room after a day's deliberations and knocked
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a folder to the floor, and while picking up the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: materials that fell down, found a research report which hadn't
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: been part of the evidence, something the juries weren't allowed
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to have in there. The jury was discharged and prosecutors
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: declined to have another trial. So even now, I guess, ellie,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: we can assume the juries under close scrutiny.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there are jury keepers in this case. So
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Their job is just as it sounds. It's to keep
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the jury and to ensure that they help them facilitate
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: reaching a decision without any external influences on that decision
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: except for the evidence that is in front of them.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: The judge also did give a warning to the jury
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: not to reveal how their numbers were falling.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: He's a voice actor reading the judge's words.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: There's one thing that must not appear in any question
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: that you ask, and that's the numbers. I don't want
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: to know about it. I don't want to hear about it.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Sometimes a jury returns to court and tells the judge
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: they just can't get to a unanimous verdict. Now in Victoria,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: on some offenses, a judge can accept a majority verdict,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: but not murder. It has to be unanimous. If a
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: jury is deadlocked, the judge can come in with something
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: called a black direction that's named after a High Court
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: disease vision that said judges can tell a deadlock jury
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: to go back into the jury room and keep going.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: The High Court said a jura who holds out and
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: goes with his or her conscience is not breaching his
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: or her oath. That's a legitimate way of serving justice.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: So if Justice Beale gives a black direction, he'll be
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: careful not to put pressure on any dura to crumble
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and go with the majority. After the break the big
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: question of motive the jury must decide. On the surface,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: this seems like a relatively straightforward matter. The Kelly Laine case,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: which we discussed earlier, that was a six month trial.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: This one was relatively short and the charges are all
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the same because they all relate to the same meal
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: beef Wellington served in July twenty twenty three at a
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: family lunch in which Erin Patterson had also invited her husband, Simon,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: he declined to attend. There are three counts of murder
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: relating to Simon's parents Don and Gail, and his auntie
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Heather Wilkinson, she was Gail's sister.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: To prove that the accused is guilty of murder, the
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: prosecution must prove the following four elements beyond reasonable doubt.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: One the accused caused the death of the deceased by
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: serving the deceased a poisoned meal.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: The judge that it wasn't disputed that Patterson served beef
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Wellington's that she had made that were poisoned with deathcat mushrooms,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: or that this caused their deaths.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: Two, the accused alleged conduct was conscious, voluntary, and deliberate.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: Three at the time of the alleged conduct, the accused
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: intended to kill or cause really serious injury to the deceased.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Four the accused killed the deceased without lawful justification or excuse.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Deliberate is the most important word there, because that's what's
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in dispute here. The defense says Patterson accidentally included death
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: cap mushrooms in the meal eaten by everyone, and that
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: she vomited after the meal and didn't become seriously unwell.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: The Crown says Patterson made a death cap free version
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: of the meal for herself and poisoned the four plates
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: intended for her guests. The big missing element is a motive.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: The Crown has not presented the jury with an alleged motive,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: but says Aaron Patterson was hostile to Simon and his
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: parents after a dispute about the separation. The defense says,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: in fact, Aaron Patterson had a motive not to murder.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: The Patterson's and Wilkinsons were part of her very small
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: support network in this country town. The judge summed it
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: up like this.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: For some murders there may be evidence of motive, but
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: some murders occur for no apparent reason. The motives of
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: such murders might only ever be known to the accused.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: The jury have heard a lot of evidence and a
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: lot of summing up of that evidence from the defense,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: from the prosecution, and then the judges charge alone that
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: was more than three hundred pages. So they understand that
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: the information that they're processing and the evidence that they're
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: assessing isn't to be taken lightly. And I think that
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: it's clear from the time that they're taking that they
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: want to make sure that the verdict they reach is
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: the right one.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley is The Australian's Legal affairs correspondent and she's
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: ready and waiting at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts along
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: with our team. The Australian subscribers will get an alert
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: on their phones as soon as the jury reaches a verdict,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: and you can be the first to read all the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: news and our analysis by joining us at the Australian
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: dot com AU