Judgement

25/01/2021 – Poem a Day Compilation



        The judge didn’t see me

        Standing before them

        Needing a chance –

        Not to be a better person,

        Not to live a better life,

        Not to make amends

        But to have my truth believed

        And to live my life a free man –

        And all they saw was

        The colour of my skin.



Justice should be blind.

It shouldn’t see race

Or gender

Or sexual orientation

Or economic status.

The same crime

Should attract the same process,

The same presumption of innocence,

The same considerations,

And the same sentence.



        I didn’t kill my wife –

        I was in police custody at the time

        From drunk and disorderly

        And I spent the night alone

        In the local watchhouse

        As my wife was dying,

        As she lay in the hospital bed.

        As her killer escaped,

        And I was only released

        In time to see her pass.



There are far too many stories

Of miscarriages of justice,

Of wrongful convictions

Of lives ruined,

Because of the prejudices

That people carry with them

All through their lives,

Unable to separate their opinion

From their professional actions

And the rule of law.



        The police beat me

        Until I was broken,

        Until I gave in,

        Until I confessed

        To a crime I didn’t do –

        A crime I couldn’t have done –

        And I wanted it to stop

        But because I was coloured

        I knew it never would

        And so did they.



The judge sits as the arbiter of truth

And if their judgement is clouded

By racism,

By sexism,

By homophobia,

Justice can never be served

And the experience of the accused

Regardless of the outcome

Will not be what it should be

And they will be scarred.



        The prosecution didn’t question

        The tainted evidence provided

        By corrupt police

        More interested in an arrest

        Than the truth or justice

        And even the confession of another man

        Could not persuade them

        I did not deserve this treatment,

        I did not need to be tried,

        I did nothing wrong.



They already have scars

From the events in their lives

That led to the point

Of them standing in the dock

Waiting for a judge

To make a call

To decide their fate

To let them live

Rather than giving them life

Or handing down death.



        I spent almost seven years

        Serving time for a crime I didn’t commit

        Until the record of detainment,

        My alibi that was ignored,

        Was “found” and brought to light

        So that I might be set free,

        So that the perpetrator might be found,

        So that my innocence might be proven

        And I could finally grieve

        For my wife and for those years lost. 



I would love to say

That my country is immune

But that would be a lie,

A scandalous one at that,

Because records exist

Because people remember

Because convictions are overturned

And we must continue to fight

For what separates us

From lawlessness and injustice.



        No police had action taken against them –

        They suffered nothing for my ordeal –

        While I languished without hope

        The continued on with their lives

        And no judge questioned their integrity

        While mine was soon discarded

        Convicted not for what I’d done but

        Because of who I am,

        Because of how I look,

        Because I am an Aborigine.



(Based on the 1984 conviction of Kelvin Condren for the murder of his wife, Patricia Carlton, after being coerced by police to confess, despite his alibi being his detainment by police. Condred was released in 1990 after his alibi was proven, a witness recanted saying that their statement had also been coerced, and another person - a white man - provided an affidavit confessing to the crime, though that person was never convicted due to mental health concerns.)