>Awarding of Legal costs in cases where persons are found not guilty or their case is dismissed
In the District or Supreme court of Western Australia if you are found not guilty or the police or prosecution decide to drop the allegations against you, you are not automatically entitled to receive any of the money you have had to spend in the preparation of or defending your innocence nor for the time spent in prison should you have been remanded in custody pending trial.
Instead after your ordeal you are the one who is left with the hefty legal bills, as if the trauma and emotional strain was not enough.
Our current Western Australian laws do not meet society’s moral obligation to help wrongfully accused people recover from the injustice they suffered and the financial and emotional strain they are left with.
The punishment continues even after the false accusation and you are found not guilty…
A wrongfully accused person is robbed of their freedom, nearly always subjected to humiliation, trauma, stress and is left with financial and emotional burdens as well as a stain on their reputation, even if they are found not guilty. Their families and friendships are tested and they are subjected to the embarrassing fact of having to defend themselves from fictitious allegations with the possibility of being convicted for a crime they did not commit.
Unfortunately, the nightmare does not end there the financial hardship and the punishment lingers long after innocence has been proven. States have a responsibility to restore these innocents’ lives to the best of their abilities.
Why Should a State Compensate the Wrongly accused?
Despite their proven innocence, the difficulty of dealing with the hangover of being wrongly accused is profound.
Need for Immediate Services:
- Financial support for basic necessities and hardship due to inability to work while having to prepare a legal battle to defend the false allegations
- Psychological Services — Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is just one common issue faced by the wrongfuly accused,
- Legal services to obtain public benefits, expunge criminal records, and regain custody of children etc
- • Counseling services to repair damaged relationships and address the psychological strains of the wrongful conviction and prison experience
Official Acknowledgement of a false accusation
• Public recognition of the harm inflicted upon the innocent fosters a wrongfuly accused person’s healing
• A second injustice adds insult to injury. Society has an obligation to promptly address and compensate for the grave injustice it has caused.
The Innocence Project is intimately familiar with the tremendous pain and challenges wrongfuly accused persons encounter after release, and has developed a series of recommendations for states to compensate the wrongly accused.
The Innocence Project recommends that the state of Western Australia:
Award costs in the District and Supreme Court for persons who are found not guilty or whose charges are dropped by the DPP.
Compensate wrongfuly accused people immediately after they are found not guilty with a fixed sum or a range of recovery for each year they are remanded in custody.
A safety net, not another battle
With no recourse for a civil lawsuits in order to be compensated it is currently at the attonery general's discretion to compensate a person via an ex-gratia payment, rather than creating a policy for compensation any time someone is found not guilty. When people are put through the pain of having to defend bogus allegations and succed in doing so they should find a safety net, not another long legal or political battle.
