Hey guys! I found a brutual question that says to assess the role of law reform in the criminal justice system but you have to refer to the criminal trial process. The only thing i could think of is to write about the one punch laws and how the offered pleaded guilty which lead to a more lenient sentence and so on but its worth 15 marks... any more ideas?
thanks
Neo gave some pretty good ideas. Here's what I would do in my personal opinion.
Pleas and charge negotiation: I would focus primarily on the case of R v Loveridge, which led to major reform. The new laws introduced mandatory minimum sentences for causing deaths with a single strike. It was also made mandatory that intoxication is considered as an aggravating factor when sentencing. While this proves to achieve some justice for the victim(s), the same cannot be said for both the offender and society. The Law Council states that mandatory imprisonment will only lead to the "individual engaging in more serious criminal acts down the track".
Partial defences: Focus would be on the case of R v Singh - husband kills wife after threats of deportation. He successfully used the provocation defence, allowing his charge to be reduced from murder to manslaughter. This lead to major outcry, with the NSW Law Reform Commission arguing that the defence be amended to 'Gross Provocation', requiring the action to be heavily provocative to be accepted. This isn't an ideal case, as it doesn't actually include law reform. However, you could say that the role of law reform is LACKING because further amendments must be made to achieve justice in this area
The role of juries: Kind of iffy on this one. The question is pretty damn tough, so I this might be stretching it a bit. I'd probably mention the amendments made so that jury votes no longer need to be unanimous. This achieves justice for the victim, as they don't need to go through the traumatic legal process all over again, and it achieves justice for society i.e. taxpayers. This therefore allows the values of society to be upheld more accurately.
Hope this helps, that question is damn tough