Once again TheLoadedDog kicks a goal. An old friend of mine due to his heroin use ended up dealing drugs to support his habit. When he began to have legal problems he employed Sydney lawyer Chris Murphy. He is one of those guys that you just assume every client he has is guilty, and usually they are.
As I had provided bail for my friend I was able to be party to a meeting they had. Basically Murphy said much the same thing, that most crims are convicted out of their own mouths. He stressed the importance of saying NOTHING, not even making denials.
The example he used was:
say the police come into your house and find a bag full of dope and there are 5 people there. If no-one admits to ownership or denies ownership they have to find some way of PROVING who owned it. He said that their task is virtually impossible under most circumstances.
In America (specifically New Jersey) this is not the case. If someone admits to possession then he gets arrested, no one admits possession everyone gets arrested. It’s called constructive possession. Of course each case is different and it is not quite as black and white as that. For instance this is more likely to be used for people in a car. Confined space, everyone has equal access to the contraband. If you go to a house and there is a party going on you are not going to arrest everyone. Each crcumstance is slightly different but the concept remains. I’m surprised there isn’t something like that in Australia. Maybe there is and the shyster was commenting on how hard it is to prove in court.
That is not exactly true for all locations. Of course there is nothing preventing you from obtaining a lawyer at your own expense for even a parking ticket (except common sense). The speech I have heard the judge give the courtroom before court many times states that if your charge carries with it a consequence of magnitude then you are entitled to request the public defender. A consequence of magnitude would be possible loss of license, fine over $1000 or jail time. The important thing is that you may request the public defender, doesn’t mean you’ll get him. You have to fill out a form and then the judge reviews it. If you make too much money your request will be denied. Even if you get the PD then you still have to pay the $200 fee or you don’t get him. Criminal court may work different.
There is nothing similar in Australia but you are correct in deducing that he was commenting about the difficulty of proving ownership in court. If no-one has told the police anything at all, the defense can make up any story they like come court time. People can deny living in the premises, the police have to prove that they did. They can deny having seen the drugs, the police have to prove they did. They can deny knowing what was in the bag on the table, the police have to prove that they did. And on and on and on.
The solicitor in question once got a prominent footballer off a possession charge. The police were trying to pull him over and he drove off. The police saw him throw a folded up piece of aluminium foil out of the car window. After they caught him they went back and retrieved the foil package which contained cocaine IIRC. In court they were unable to prove that the foil package they picked up in the street had ever been in the possession of the footballer. Not guilty.
Jesus, a $200 fee for a PD? Half our clients couldn’t afford us if they did that here. Here, you don’t qualify if you make more than 175% of the federal poverty guideline amount for your household size. That number does not leave much in the way of disposable income for most people.
We also only take clients that are charged with jailable offenses (so loss of license doesn’t count, even if you absolutely have to have a license for your job). It always amazes me how local court rules vary so much from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
I don’t know what the exact criteria the judge uses. He has a chart he consults when determining if the person qualifies. I don’t know if there is something in place for those that can’t even afford the $200. That would be done out of the courtroom.