Death in custody fury
The Melbourne Age December 22, 2006
Indigenous Australians have reacted with outrage to a senior prosecutor's defiant rejection of challenges to her decision not to press charges against a policeman over a death in custody.
Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions Leanne Clare yesterday ignored calls from both Premier Peter Beattie and Attorney-General Kerry Shine, who had urged her to review her controversial decision relating to the death of a Palm Island man.
Ms Shine sent a letter to Ms Clare yesterday saying a review of the decision would be "strongly" supported by Premier Beattie.
But Ms Clare said in a statement last night: "If this case had gone to a jury, no law abiding citizen - black or white, Christian or Muslim - would have found this man guilty."
Ms Clare provoked outrage last week when she decided not to charge Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley over the 2004 death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, despite an earlier coronial finding that he was responsible for the death.
Deputy Coroner Christine Clements found Senior Sergeant Hurley was responsible for the four broken ribs and torn liver Mr Doomadgee suffered during his arrest. His death led to riots on the island, off Townsville.
Ms Clare said she was "acutely aware" of the controversy surrounding her decision not to press charges. "It does not change the fact, however, that the evidence does not support a prosecution."
She said she would not submit her decision to external review because to do so would be to call her independence into question.
Palm Island Mayor Delena Foster said said she was "disappointed, angry and disgusted" at the decision.
"It makes you wonder, 'What has she got to hide?' It's cowardly on her part," Ms Foster said.
Labor President Warren Mundine said: "I don't think she's got it through her thick skull that she has jeopardised the reputation of the entire Queensland justice system."
Even judges had to explain how they arrived at their decisions when they handed down findings, but "this woman has put herself above the High Court in that she thinks she doesn't have to (explain herself)," he said.
"From the very beginning, this (investigation) has looked like an old boy's club . . . The whole system seems to operate on this matey-matey basis."
Mr Mundine warned that by refusing to have her decision independently reviewed, Ms Clare had "upped the ante".
"Now we'll have to go to Peter Beattie and ask him to change the law so that we have scrutiny of decisions by the DPP and an appeal mechanism put in place so that we can appeal if we're not happy with the decision," he said.
Ms Clare said Senior Sergeant Hurley could not be prosecuted even if she did order an external review.
"The firm assessment of my office was that the evidence fell considerably short of that which would be required to put anyone on trial. Therefore, no one in my office could prosecute this case regardless of any position adopted by an external review.
"Prosecuting is not about being popular. It is about taking on the admissible evidence without fear or favour and doing what is considered in good faith to be the right thing."
Ms Clare's decision may still be reviewed, however. Brisbane lawyer Andrew Boe is preparing to mount a challenge in the Queensland Supreme Court after advice from Bret Walker, SC, that her ruling was open to question.
Earlier, Mr Beattie announced that all indigenous deaths in custody in Queensland would be treated as suspicious, following claims an initial police probe was bungled and tainted with bias. Several of the investigating police were friends of Senior Sergeant Hurley and drank and dined with him at his house during the investigation.
On Wednesday, Mr Beattie travelled to Palm Island to placate the community but was snubbed by Mr Doomadgee's partner and his family.
"The family thought it was a waste of time to meet him," their lawyer, Frederic Cassis, said.
With AAP
Paradise still denied on Palm Island
Graham Ring
The Melbourne Age December 22, 2006
IN HIS 2001 collection Reconciliation, Michael Gordon described Palm Island - a place of remarkable natural beauty 65 kilometres north-east of Townsville - as "a paradise denied". He noted that in 1991 The Guinness Book of Records had (wrongly) suggested that it was the most violent place on Earth outside a combat zone.
Eighty years earlier, Queensland's Protector of Aborigines had decided that Palm Island would make an ideal site to confine Aboriginal and Islander people who were "problem cases" and "uncontrollables". In the next two decades more than 1600 people from 40 different Aboriginal groups across Queensland were confined to the island. Residents could not leave without the permission of the superintendent, and outgoing mail was censored.
The people of the island took strike action in 1957 and again in 1974 seeking fairer conditions and a degree of autonomy. In 1985, title to the island was passed to the Community Council as a Deed of Grant in Trust. Shortly afterwards houses, shops, a timber mill and farming equipment were disassembled and returned to the mainland on barges.
On November 19, 2004, Mulrunji Doomadgee died in police custody on the island, after his arrest by Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley on a charge of public nuisance. An inquest conducted by Queensland's acting State Coroner, Christine Clements, found that that Mulrunji died from "blood loss caused by rupture of the liver consequent upon blunt compressive force to the upper abdomen".
An autopsy revealed that Mulrunji had four broken ribs and that his liver was "almost cleaved in two". The Coroner's report was unambiguous: "I find that Senior Sergeant Hurley hit Mulrunji while he was on the floor a number of times. I conclude that these actions of Senior Sergeant Hurley caused the fatal injuries."
Yet last week, Queensland's Director of Public Prosecutions, Leanne Clare, described Mulrunji's death as "a terrible accident" caused by a "complicated fall" and found that Hurley had no charge to answer. The decision provoked a storm of outrage across indigenous Australia, with "rights agenda" activists and conservatives alike united in their condemnation.
Coroner Clements also found that the police investigation into Mulrunji's death was deeply flawed, noting that the involvement of officers from Townsville and Palm Island was "inappropriate" and "undermined the integrity of this investigation". She described as "completely unacceptable" the fact that investigators dined at Hurley's house while the investigation was being conducted. The fact that Hurley himself had met the investigating officers at the airport and driven them to the scene of Mulrunji's arrest also earned the Coroner's wrath.
ALP national president Warren Mundine flew to Palm Island on Wednesday to speak at a protest meeting. He had earlier observed that there was "no justice in Queensland for Aboriginal people" and drew parallels with the Ku Klux Klan racism depicted in the film Mississippi Burning. Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Mal Brough has also called for the matter to be re-examined.
Meanwhile, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie is putting on his stern face and telling people that he will have no truck with "political interference" in the performance of the duties of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Beattie's attempt to tough it out is becoming increasingly untenable amid the growing swell of public outrage at the decision.
Beattie's stocks with indigenous Queenslanders are low after his recent decision to abolish the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and merge its functions into the Department of Communities. The DPP's finding will do nothing to quell the increasing volatility of the relationship between the Beattie Government and indigenous communities.
The indigenous arm of the Uniting Church has described the DPP's decision as a "deliberate and dangerous precedent driven by politics" and expressed grave fears about the possibility of an indigenous backlash against the decision. Lobby group Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation has suggested that if the positions were reversed and an Aboriginal man caused the death of a police officer in similar circumstances then charges would surely be laid.
The issues surrounding deaths in custody were exhaustively examined and documented by the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The commission made 339 cogent and wide-ranging recommendations, exploring not only custodial health and safety, but also the need for greater educational and employment opportunities for Aboriginal people. Had these recommendations been followed, Mulrunji would probably still be alive. Commission Recommendation 87a stated that "all police services should adopt and apply the principle of arrest being the sanction of last resort in dealing with offenders".
In this case, the Coroner found that the arrest of Mulrunji was "not an appropriate exercise of police discretion".
But Mulrunji is dead. And it's unlikely that the Palm Islanders' thirst for justice will be slaked by anything less than a criminal trial.
Graham Ring writes for the National Indigenous Times
Beattie snubbed by dead man's family
Cosima Marriner, Palm Island
The Melbourne Age December 21, 2006
QUEENSLAND Premier Peter Beattie travelled to Palm Island yesterday - only to be snubbed by the family of Mulrunji Doomadgee, the Aboriginal man who died in police custody there in 2004.
Mr Beattie's mission was to placate the community after the decision last week by Director of Public Prosecutions Leanne Clare not to charge Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley over Doomadgee's death.
Mr Doomadgee's de facto partner, Tracey Twaddle, and his sisters refused to meet Mr Beattie after it became clear that he was not going to order the DPP's ruling be reviewed.
"The family thought it was a waste of time to meet with him," the family's lawyer, Frederic Cassis, said.
"Their family member (was) killed two years ago Š as it stands there is going to be no justice for them."
Addressing a fiery rally on Palm Island yesterday afternoon, Mr Beattie repeatedly insisted he could not interfere in the judicial process. But he hinted strongly that he thought Ms Clare should ask for her decision to be reviewed.
"The Premier of the day shouldn't dictate to the Director of Public Prosecutions who is charged," Mr Beattie said. But "if the DPP wants to seek a review Š she will have my full support to do so".
Another lawyer acting for the Doomadgee family, Andrew Boe, said the DPP had previously asked for an independent review of her decision not to prosecute swimming coach Scott Volkers, who was accused of sexual abuse.
Mr Boe was yesterday set to lodge an appeal against the DPP's decision - but said it should not be up to the family to try to get "a just outcome".
The DPP's decision is at odds with the findings of deputy state coroner Christine Clements, who in September found that Senior Sergeant Hurley caused Mr Doomadgee's fatal injuries. The coroner found that "Senior Sergeant Hurley lost his temper Š (and) hit Mulrunji whilst he was on the floor a number of times Š I find there was no further resistance or indeed any speech or response from Mulrunji. I conclude that these actions of Senior Sergeant Hurley caused the fatal injuries."
Last week the DPP found that death was a "terrible accident" due to a "complicated fall" in which a "crushing force to the front of his abdomen" occurred when Mr Doomadgee and Senior Sergeant Hurley fell together through the open door of the police station.
ALP federal president Warren Mundine vowed to start an anti-apartheid-style campaign to ensure justice for Aboriginal people.
He said Mr Beattie had left the Palm Island community "with nothing". "When you come here and say you can't do a thing, then you must accept the cynicism and disbelief of the community," Mr Mundine said. "You are a leader and you need to do something because this will fester on. Justice needs to be done."
Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson, who also attended the Palm Island rally, said "not one" indigenous person could be satisfied with the DPP's decision.
A member of the Prime Minister's National Indigenous Council, Wesley Aird, said he would support a civil disobedience campaign.
"If we can't rely on the law, then I think it's reasonable to look at any other options," Mr Aird said. "When there are two sets of rules and they are so blatantly flouted as in this case, then something else has to be done to change this (situation)."