Last year, one of our readers sent me an article about one of two pending appeals in the Supreme Court of the United States about the use of drug-dogs and the admissibility of searches and seizures based on drug-dog indications.The two appeals are Florida v Jardines and Florida v Harris. An overview of the cases …
Continue reading Nose for crime or just bad scents? Drug dogs and the search-or-sniff dichotomy
I mentioned back in October that Brendan Murphy QC was appointed as the newly-created public interest monitor.Last week the Victorian government appointed the head of its new IBAC, Stephen O'Bryan SC, and the Victorian Inspector, Robin Brett QC, who will oversee the IBAC.One recent opinion article in The Age cast doubt on the likely effectiveness …
Continue reading Anti-corruption bodies set to start 1 Jan 2013?
Andrew McIntosh, the Minister responsible for establishing an anti-corruption commission, recently announced the appointment of Brendan Murphy QC as Victoria's first Public Interest Monitor.The PIM is appointed under the Public Interest Monitor Act 2011. His role is to appear at the Supreme Court and Administrative Appeals Tribunal when investigative agencies apply for confidential or secret …
In the wake of the brouhaha over police affidavits (causing the state government to rush through legislation to retrospectively validate their search warrant applications, discussed here) it's probably timely for everyone who witnesses documents to reacquaint themselves with the formalities. I don't know how much time law schools spend on this issue these days, but …
Continue reading Witnessing affidavits and statutory declarations
You probably read the recent news about the bombshell discovery in a County Court trial that the deponent of an affidavit for several search warrants didn't actually swear the affidavit.The trial judge decided the evidence consequently obtained from the search warrants should not be received in evidence under Evidence Act 2008 s 138. Because the …
Continue reading Sometimes; I swear…DPP v Marijancevic; DPP v Preece; DPP v Preece [2011] VSCA 355