'And Along Came DNA': The Introduction of DNA Evidence in Australian Courts in the Applebee case.
In 1989, serial offender Desmond Applebee was tried in the Australian Capital Territory for the rape of a young woman. A first for Australian courts, the prosecution tendered DNA evidence to counter Applebee's alibi that he had been unconscious in his car at the time. However, despite the handling o...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Legal History Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 305 - 330 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Dec2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=180765133&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 180765133 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01440365 7JG jtl: Journal of Legal History issn: 01440365 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2024 vid: 45 iid: 3 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 180765133 10.1080/01440365.2024.2414536 ppf: 305 ppct: 25 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.9MB tig: atl: 'And Along Came DNA': The Introduction of DNA Evidence in Australian Courts in the Applebee case. aug: au: Dawes, Laura L. affil: Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia su: DNA Rape Evidence Admissible evidence Belief & doubt sug: subj: DNA Rape Evidence Admissible evidence Belief & doubt keyword: Chamberlain case reliability Applebee case DNA evidence DNA wars novel scientific evidence ab: In 1989, serial offender Desmond Applebee was tried in the Australian Capital Territory for the rape of a young woman. A first for Australian courts, the prosecution tendered DNA evidence to counter Applebee's alibi that he had been unconscious in his car at the time. However, despite the handling of novel scientific evidence being hotly debated at the time, the trial failed to engage with the legal issues this new evidence raised. The defence was unprepared and under-resourced to put into issue evidentiary principles; there was no systemic means for addressing the issues raised by novel scientific evidence if the defence did not do so. This paper argues that the Applebee case is a dissatisfying case of first impression, graphically illustrating the struggles legal systems can have interrogating novel scientific evidence. The case helped smooth adoption of this new form of evidence. How courts receive and respond to scientific evidence is today again in mind owing to the recent quashing of Kathleen Folbigg's murder conviction following genetic discoveries; Applebee shows why relying on a particular defendant and particular defence counsel to carry out a gate-keeping function for admissibility of novel evidence collides with practical realities of the court system. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of Legal History is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of Legal History holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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