VIC Corrupt Prosecution in Criminal Law?

[Arifa]

Is it possible for a criminal law prosecutor, who is either corrupt or sympathetic to the defence, to charge them with a crime that requires a higher burden of proof than what they could be reasonably expected to overcome, leaving the jury to find them innocent, and double jeopardy laws preventing them for being charged with a more reasonable crime?

I'm not asking about the morality, legality, or probability of that happening, just if it could with small chance of being found out.

 

[Joshbuck]

I suppose it is, but there are exceptions like “the court may order a retrial for an acquitted person to be retried for the offence of murder if it is satisfied that there is both fresh and compelling evidence against the acquitted person and in all circumstances it is in the interest of justice”
And “the court may order an acquitted person retried for a 25 year offence if satisfied that the acquittal is a tainted acquittal and in all circumstances it is in the interests of justice.”

Fortunately there’s clauses like this so evil geniuses can’t blatantly get away with murder like in whatever crime fiction novel you’re reading.

 

[Scruff]

In reality, I'd say it depends on the crime. If a prosecution fails in a case where a serious crime has been committed, then I suspect that the prosecutor's office would have some kind of internal review process to find out what went wrong so it doesn't happen again.

If that's the case, then such a process would involve reviewing the evidence as well as how the prosecutor handled the case. The prosecutor would therefore have a lot of questions to answer and I would think there's a pretty good chance they'd be found out if they didn't handle the case in a proper manner.

 

[Arifa]

I suppose it is, but there are exceptions like “the court may order a retrial for an acquitted person to be retried for the offence of murder if it is satisfied that there is both fresh and compelling evidence against the acquitted person and in all circumstances it is in the interest of justice”
And “the court may order an acquitted person retried for a 25 year offence if satisfied that the acquittal is a tainted acquittal and in all circumstances it is in the interests of justice.”

Fortunately there’s clauses like this so evil geniuses can’t blatantly get away with murder like in whatever crime fiction novel you’re reading.

The crime fiction novel I’m reading is American police brutality/murder cases, where the prosecution charges murder knowing that they can’t prove intent and that double jeopardy laws will prevent a retrial

 

[Bill Murray]

How ironic that this exact scenario was discussed on Whirlpool in relation to the recent NT case.

The answer is anything is possible. But it's so unlikely that it's not worth entertaining the idea of.