‘They were subject to our laws’: Aboriginal defendants in NSW courts 1850–1914
Author(s)
Finnane, M
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We now know a good deal about how Indigenous peoples came to be British legal subjects in settler colonised Australia. But we know very much less in any systematic way about the experience of Aboriginal accused, especially in the eastern half of Australia. A significant barrier to understanding the presence of Aboriginal defendants in colonial courts has been their common erasure from official statistics. Laborious historical investigation is essential to advance any understanding of the frequency of appearance of particular populations, or indeed of any patterns of process and outcomes affecting such. This article reports ...
View more >We now know a good deal about how Indigenous peoples came to be British legal subjects in settler colonised Australia. But we know very much less in any systematic way about the experience of Aboriginal accused, especially in the eastern half of Australia. A significant barrier to understanding the presence of Aboriginal defendants in colonial courts has been their common erasure from official statistics. Laborious historical investigation is essential to advance any understanding of the frequency of appearance of particular populations, or indeed of any patterns of process and outcomes affecting such. This article reports the outcomes of a systematic reconstruction of the prosecution of Aboriginal defendants. Drawing on Prosecution Project data systematically recorded for all criminal trial events in New South Wales between 1850 and 1914, I establish identity through information available in court records, colonial newspapers and police gazettes. I analyse the crimes for which defendants were prosecuted, and their consequences including both convictions and acquittals, and resulting sentencing outcomes. The discussion of results will focus on questions of justice and fairness in legal procedure as they are discoverable in this history.
View less >
View more >We now know a good deal about how Indigenous peoples came to be British legal subjects in settler colonised Australia. But we know very much less in any systematic way about the experience of Aboriginal accused, especially in the eastern half of Australia. A significant barrier to understanding the presence of Aboriginal defendants in colonial courts has been their common erasure from official statistics. Laborious historical investigation is essential to advance any understanding of the frequency of appearance of particular populations, or indeed of any patterns of process and outcomes affecting such. This article reports the outcomes of a systematic reconstruction of the prosecution of Aboriginal defendants. Drawing on Prosecution Project data systematically recorded for all criminal trial events in New South Wales between 1850 and 1914, I establish identity through information available in court records, colonial newspapers and police gazettes. I analyse the crimes for which defendants were prosecuted, and their consequences including both convictions and acquittals, and resulting sentencing outcomes. The discussion of results will focus on questions of justice and fairness in legal procedure as they are discoverable in this history.
View less >
Journal Title
History Australia
Note
This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advanced online version.
Subject
Language studies
Historical studies