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RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Aboriginal's Death in Custody Case – No Justice?

Stephen de Tarczynski

MELBOURNE, Nov 30 2008 (IPS) - Although supporters have expressed satisfaction with the six year jail term handed down recently to Lex Wotton for his role in the 2004 Palm Island riot – sparked by the death in police custody of aboriginal man Cameron Doomadgee – they say that justice has yet to be served.

"They were relieved…[and] satisfied with what he got," says Raymond Sibley, brother of Lex Wotton’s wife and deputy mayor of Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council, describing the reaction of Wotton’s family to the six year sentence given to him on Nov.7 in the Townsville Supreme Court.

Wotton, 40, was found guilty in October of inciting the riot in the isolated community of Palm Island during which the island’s police station, officer’s barracks, courthouse and a police car were destroyed.

The riot, which lasted about three hours, occurred on Nov.26, 2004. It began after the coroner’s report into the death of Doomadgee, known by his tribal name of Mulrunji, was announced at a public meeting, revealing the extent of his injuries – including a ruptured spleen and liver, as well as broken ribs – to the community.

Despite facing a possible life sentence for his leading role in the riot, Wotton could be released as early as July 2010, when he will become eligible for parole.

But while supporters have expressed relief at the relative leniency of the jail time given to Wotton, they argue that justice has not been done.

Sibley told IPS that the 4,000-strong, mostly indigenous, community of Palm Island – which he says is in desperate need of housing, jobs and access to better education for young people – is "still not going to rest until justice will be done for Mulrunji."

According to the island’s deputy Mayor, justice requires that a Royal Commission – a major public inquiry – into his death be conducted. Protestors also called for a Royal Commission while demonstrating in the state capital, Brisbane, prior to Wotton’s sentencing.

While a precedent was set some years ago following public concern at the high number of indigenous people dying while being held by police – the 1987-1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found that the deaths of indigenous inmates were roughly proportionate to their over-representation in Australia’s prison population – it appears unlikely that such a commission will again be enacted in relation to Mulrunji, despite lingering questions concerning police culpability.

Mulrunji was arrested for creating a public nuisance on the morning of Nov.19 after becoming involved in a verbal spat with police officers who were, at the time, arresting another Palm Island man.

After being taken into police custody, Mulrunji had a physical altercation with Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, the arresting officer, at the police lock-up. Mulrunji died on the jailhouse floor, aged 36, a short time later.

His death set off a series of events, which included the riot and Wotton’s subsequent trial and sentencing.

A lengthy report by the police Ethical Standards Command, responding to criticism of the role of police in Mulrunji’s death, was sent to the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) in late November. The CMC will provide police with a response, after which further action may be considered.

Previously, a coronial inquiry was conducted in 2006 and found that Mulrunji had sustained horrific injuries. His liver and portal vein were ruptured, leading to the intra-abdominal bleeding which caused his death.

Despite acting state coroner, Christine Clements, concluding that Hurley’s actions caused Mulrunji’s injuries, the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Leanne Clare, did not press charges.

It was not until a review of the DPP’s decision was carried out in January 2007 that it was recommended that Hurley be charged. The officer pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and assault and was acquitted.

But with the full ramifications of the circumstances surrounding Mulrunji’s death still to be played out, the affair is being viewed as a symbol of the reality of relations between black and white Australia.

"There is a massive gulf between what is really going on and what Australians would like the rest of the world to believe," says Chris Graham, managing editor of the National Indigenous Times (NIT) newspaper, which aims to bridge the divide between Australia’s indigenous and non-indigenous communities.

While the ongoing Mulrunji affair has so far resulted in the death of one aboriginal man and the imprisonment of another, police involved have either been compensated or given awards.

"I think it’s a great metaphor for how Australia treats Aboriginal people," says Graham.

Hurley was controversially paid some AUD 100,000 (64,800 US dollars) compensation for items destroyed when the police barracks were torched, while 22 police officers involved in quelling the riot received bravery awards from the Queensland Police Service. The awards were presented in the same week that Wotton was sentenced.

Graham told IPS that it is "a great indication of the gulf between Queensland police and reality because it’s not just aboriginal people who are outraged by what has gone on. There are a lot of non-aboriginal people who are stunned that this sort of thing could happen in 2008."

He says that Wotton’s sentence does not represent "anything approaching justice."

"People have got to remember that a man died in this tragedy. A man was killed by a police officer in a police cell," says Graham.

The NIT editor argues that Palm Islanders were justified in attacking police buildings, which he says has led to greater media coverage of Mulrunji’s death and issues surrounding it, leading to greater efforts "to improve the lives of Palm Islanders in the four years since the uprising than happened in the decades before it."

"Not only were they justified but they showed enormous restraint by not injuring, in any serious way, police," says Graham, pointing out that police injuries "were limited to a bruise and an abrasion."

"If that’s not restraint by aboriginal people who were incensed by the killing of one of their own, then I don’t know what you would call restraint," he says.