Legal Studies - Criminal Law – L5 – The Baden-Clay Appeal and high court case

The third of a series of lessons I created about the Murder of Allison Baden-Clay using evidence from documentaries, news articles and the 2017 book authored by David Murray.

The PPT began with a warm up activity for students to copy the definition of ‘appeal.’ It included information about the Supreme court of Queensland and how it operates. There is also information about ‘natural justice’ (aka procedural fairness) and sentencing options including custodial sentences.

The lesson picked up where we left off with the 2014 trial. The defence had advised Gerard not to take the stand but he decided to do so anyway. There are excerpts from the court documents which I got students to read out (one person to be Gerard, the other to be the lawyer). Then information is provided about the prosecutions cross-examination of Gerard. Then a summary is provided about the Defense and prosecution’s closing arguments. Then the outcome of the case is explained including: the jury verdict, the delivery of victim impact statements and justice John Byrnes decision.

This is followed by information about:

• Gerard’s appeal (August 2015)
• Reactions to the outcome of the appeal (including protests in King George square in December 2015)
• The prosecutions decision to appeal the Supreme Court’s Decision to the High Court
• The outcome of the High Court Hearing (July 2016)
• Information about how Allison’s daughters, sister and parents are faring including their advocacy work
• Statistics regarding intimate partner homicide in Australia

NB: In my PPTs I typically underline the information that I want students to write. The rest I use as talking points / visual aids.

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NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.