On Jill Meagher

"When you don't need an answer there'll be days like this

When you don't meet a chancer there'll be days like this

When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit

Then I must remember there'll be days like this"

~ ‘Days Like This' by Van Morrison, from his 1995 album of the same name.

Friday, the twenty-eighth day of this September. It has been some kind of a day.

On a personal note, due to a shift in my own working situation, today found me bidding fond farewells to several long-term patients whose care had been entrusted to me. Bittersweet because I feel a sense of achievement in what I've done, tempered by a relinquishing of much of their care into the hands of others. The day outside mirrored my mood: dark and wet with a sense of misery. The greyness of my Friday was an echo of the day of many across Melbourne. It was the day they found Jill Meagher's body.

Following an evening out drinking with friends and work colleagues, Jill disappeared whilst walking the short distance home, literally a few minutes by foot. The media was breathless in reporting her disappearance and social media swiftly erupted in earnest appeals for any witnesses or sightings. It appears that the hard work and skills of Victoria Police as well as several leads provided by the public during the maelstrom of publicity the case received, lead to the discovery of Jill's body, inhumanely violated and obscenely dumped by a country roadside.

A man was arrested for the crime, his name quickly made public, along with his past misdeeds. The same machinery of social media that so aptly brought the publicity the case needed to produce at least some leads turned fiercely to the accused. Wishes for punishment and violent retribution were suggested most strenuously. Demands for the life of this man (whom I won't name; but not for the reasons you probably think) flowed freely. He's an animal, it has been claimed, a monster who must pay for his crimes. He abducted, raped and murdered an innocent woman and hopefully, many have said, he will be killed by convicted criminals in prison before he faces a court of law. Many who are horrified by his alleged crimes are baying for his blood.

While it may be extremely gratifying to see punishment meted out to those deserving, our thoughts simply must go towards due process. They just have to.

One of the bedrock tenets of our legal system is the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven in a court of law. This man must be afforded this right, regardless of the evidence revealed to the public thus far, regardless also of the force of our rage and our desire to see justice. To do otherwise would betray so much of who we are and what we value as a society. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, the accused ought to have his day in court.

Why?

The presumption of innocence ensures that anyone accused of a crime is afforded the kind of defence that will make a conviction as strong as it can be. Furthermore, it protects those innocent parties accused wrongly. To my mind, that protection is one that covers you and me more than any criminal. If it weren't for the presumption of innocence, any person could accuse another of anything and expect them to be punished, without the burden of proof, regardless of whether the accused is guilty or not.  An accusation of a crime is simply not enough. The proof is overwhelming? No matter. The process is king. The mob mentality demanding justice may be gratifying on a visceral level, but lynchings are seldom about what's just.

This extends to the electronic lynching on sites like Twitter and Facebook and in the court of public opinion, easy enough in the largely anonymous environs of the World Wide Web and especially when there's no shortage of people willing to agree with the sentiments of those wanting rough justice. Even Jill Meagher’s husband has recognised how potentially damaging this kind of online ranting can be to a potential conviction and has publicly called for it to stop. That kind of request could not have been an easy one to make, and I salute his dignity in the face of the horror of losing his wife in these circumstances.

It seems incongruous to bring up Batman in a discussion of such gravitas. Would you indulge me? In Christopher Nolan's film Batman Begins, an embittered Bruce Wayne links revenge and justice as the same. He is chastised by a childhood friend:  "No, they're never the same. Justice is about harmony. Revenge is about you making yourself feel better..."

What's more important? Justice for Jill Meagher or making ourselves feel better? If it’s the former, then for goodness' sake, let us allow the law to take its course.

Not too long ago, a cheap and amateurish film that many Muslims found deeply offensive was released on the Internet. The reaction was fierce, with riots characterised by clashes with authorities in many countries including Australia. Some protesters in Australia held placards calling for the punishment and even beheadings of those 'opposed' to Islam. A good many Australians reacted to these protests with scorn, some making the (mostly) valid point that those who come to Australia to get away from oppressive and totalitarian regimes should not attempt to enforce here the same conditions of lawlessness and incivility they sought to escape in the countries of their origin. Shall we now suggest that crimes offensive to us be met with the same heavy-handedness? Or is the rule of law we claim others ought to respect important enough for us to maintain and protect in the face of gross violation of our own sensibilities? How can we possibly lay claim to any moral high ground if we don't protect the rule of law?

For those demanding corporal or even capital punishment for the accused would do well to remember that executing criminals costs far more in money and legal resources than imprisoning them for life. Let's also remember the words of American inventor and writer Benjamin Franklin who said "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Jill Meagher did not deserve such base treatment. When faced with the choice between what is right and what is easy, we dishonour her memory by choosing the latter. To let true justice play out in the courts may be the longer, slower, less immediately satisfying journey, but it is the right one. Punishment of those who prey on women (or children for that matter) ought to be severe, no question. But not at any cost.

On my way home today, the dark grey skies parted for a brief moment. As brilliant sun rays streamed from behind me, a perfect and complete rainbow shone in front of me. I remembered a promise. Even when tears come as a flood, there remains hope for a better tomorrow. A future dulled by the loss of someone like Jill Meagher may not be entirely quelled by the conviction of a killer, but it’s a start. If we compromise our values in the pursuit of that justice, we forfeit our own chance for a better world.

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