"A Dingo Ate my Baby!"

[CdnCarrie]

Great interview today.

http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article/8482516/lindy-chamberlain-creighton-exclusive

Interesting how all the police and others that were there that day supported their story. It was others that came along later in the case that doubted it.

 

[DVCLiz]

Maybe a fox ate the baby.

 

[Disneymadhouse]

I think I may have been mis quoted and misunderstood!

I just meant that the specualtion surrounding the case of Azaria will probably never diminsh just like the case of Maddie (unless she is found alive), that was the only comparison.

And no just for the record its not common here in the UK to leave your children alone while you dine out, either here or on holiday in another country!

Claire

 

[teskak]

Aussie chiming in again.

Lindy chamberlain had the same sort of things said about her as I have watched in the debate on the Florida girl (kaycee?) and the latest shooting.

She did not show emotion - therefore she was guilty
Her religion (Seventh Day Adventist) was not "mainstream" (for a conservative country in 1980) - therefore she was guilty
Azaria is not a mainstream name (and crackpots including my mother believed it meant "wilderness sacrifice") - therefore she was guilty

Forensic science had just appeared, and some test suggested there was a reading of fetal blood in the footwell of thier car - therefore that must be true because it is science -actually it was rust proofing which also had a high iron content.

The prosecutor threw a heap of $$$ at the case, and they did to have the $$ to defend. Therefore they could not send samples to be tested, when experts and third party CSI labs did not exist in 1980 in Australia.

There was no equivalent of the Justice Project where law students work on these cases. And at the time of the initial trial the clothes had not been found - so that evidence is not there.

For those who go out camping in summer, does the whole family go to the tent & stay there once the children go to bed? Or does a parent go to check on them while staying around the camp fire?

 

[cornflake]

I guess the thing that gets to me. Is how did her clothes get off. I would have thought the dingo would have shredded them to p ieces

A dog is capable of dragging clothing off people; a baby is not capable of resisting the way an older child or adult could either.

She did not show emotion - therefore she was guilty
Her religion (Seventh Day Adventist) was not "mainstream" (for a conservative country in 1980) - therefore she was guilty
Azaria is not a mainstream name (and crackpots including my mother believed it meant "wilderness sacrifice") - therefore she was guilty

Oy vey to the latter two but yeah to the first. It's interesting how wrong some of the basic science was and that seems to be what was at the basis of the wrongful conviction - along with the public view of her.

Which makes it different from stuff like Casey Anthony, where the forensic work was fine and obvious and the jury was bananas and JonBenet Ramsay, where the cops were at fault for messing up the case and some of the evidence, leading to prosecutorial doubt about proving the parents' guilt.

 

[teskak]

I am not saying anything was right or wrong, and looking at the attitudes of 30 years ago is frightening. I was 10 at the time and I can remember my parents having strong debates with friends about this.

Of all the states in Australia, the Northern Territory was (and still is) the most redneck. The country was conservative, Chinese restaurants were uncommon and lasagna was down right foreign!

The people were unsophisticated, and of soembody said something was science - it has to be true. Now there is the reverse and jurors having the university of google to help them question things. Throw in politicians &
Police wanting to have a law & order agenda and these things happen.

It is a pity as an Australian when I am in the USA the 2 things mentioned are a bad accent of "a dingos got my baybeee" and "throwing a shrimp on a barbie". (they are prawns & best peeled & eaten with bread & a squeeze of lemon. Shrimp are tiny things found in cans)

 

[Sgt Mickey]

Anyone know why the mom got life in prison time? And the dad got a 18 month suspended sentence? Were they not all around the campfire together? I looked at the website it leaves me with more questions. Maybe I should read the book.

 

[teskak]

She was convicted in the first instance of decapitating Azaria with nail scissors while sitting in the front seat of her vehicle & cutting the body up to place in a camera bag. The husband was convicted of helping her dispose of the camera bag-accessory after the fact.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

She was convicted in the first instance of decapitating Azaria with nail scissors while sitting in the front seat of her vehicle & cutting the body up to place in a camera bag. The husband was convicted of helping her dispose of the camera bag-accessory after the fact.

ah okay thank you.

 

[cornflake]

I am not saying anything was right or wrong, and looking at the attitudes of 30 years ago is frightening. I was 10 at the time and I can remember my parents having strong debates with friends about this.

Of all the states in Australia, the Northern Territory was (and still is) the most redneck. The country was conservative, Chinese restaurants were uncommon and lasagna was down right foreign!

The people were unsophisticated, and of soembody said something was science - it has to be true. Now there is the reverse and jurors having the university of google to help them question things. Throw in politicians &
Police wanting to have a law & order agenda and these things happen.

It is a pity as an Australian when I am in the USA the 2 things mentioned are a bad accent of "a dingos got my baybeee" and "throwing a shrimp on a barbie". (they are prawns & best peeled & eaten with bread & a squeeze of lemon. Shrimp are tiny things found in cans)

The shirmp on the barbie thing was a commercial aired here, so it's understandable, and there was the Streep movie, but the penetration of that phrase (a dingo... ) into pop culture after this long is kind of impressive, linguistically.

A couple of people mentioned the Seinfeld reference. There's a Frasier episode in which Niles is carrying around a flour baby (a bag of flour used as a ersatz baby in old school classes to show teens how hard parenthood is; you must never leave your flour baby unattended, it can't be harmed, etc.) to see if he's ready for fatherhood.

He turns his back, the dog wanders over and cue Daphne - "that dingo's got your baybee.' That cracked me up every single time I saw it on a rerun, ever.

Just out of curiosity, as you mention the university of google... there's a burgeoning problem here in the U.S. with juries having completely ridiculous and improbable expectations of evidence and forensic work that they think should be performed, and often a bad misunderstanding of science, based on the insanely popular genre of forensic science shows like CSI. Is that a problem there?

 

[teskak]

Short answer of juries - not that I know in depth.

There have been mistrials where a juror has decided to do his own site visit to check out visibility at night for some events. I have not read any Supreme Court appeals where CSI juries were the reason for a change of decision.

Judges give standard warnings to avoid Internet etc. there is no replica for the NAncy Grace shows where some retired lawyer /talking head goes over what each juror might be thinking. It is extremely rare to allow cameras in the court room at all, there are reporting sketch artists or special documentaries of "behind the scenes" but there is no show where the public can watch the goings on.

 

[cornflake]

Short answer of juries - not that I know in depth.

There have been mistrials where a juror has decided to do his own site visit to check out visibility at night for some events. I have not read any Supreme Court appeals where CSI juries were the reason for a change of decision.

Judges give standard warnings to avoid Internet etc. there is no replica for the NAncy Grace shows where some retired lawyer /talking head goes over what each juror might be thinking. It is extremely rare to allow cameras in the court room at all, there are reporting sketch artists or special documentaries of "behind the scenes" but there is no show where the public can watch the goings on.

Thanks for the info. I don't know of any overturning based on CSI shows here either, though I dunno, could've happened someplace. We've had the mistrials based on jurors going online too though.

It's mostly led to strange verdicts when jurors think that, like, there should be DNA and fingerprint evidence for a domestic violence case and when there isn't (because there wouldn't be), acquit someone.

Also interesting there's not the same kind of tv coverage there, and fewer cameras in courtrooms (that's by state/municipality here, some states allow it much more than others, there are some that rarely ever do and you get the sketch artists too).

 

[Sabrefan]

You said you couldn't get past the report that the clothes were folded neatly. I assumed you meant you thought she was guilty because you believed someone would have folded them, the same person who committed the murder. I assumed you would have voted "Guilty" if you'd been on the jury based on your statement.[/QUOTE]

You assumed all that from one sentence? Geesh! I'm glad you are not on a jury

 

[Sabrefan]

let me guess you are a democrat, You prefer CNN

Politics are against DIS guidelines so I wont go into your statement too much other than to say that is quite an assumption based on her opinion of Fox News, my step father is a VERY far right conservative and he acknowledges the biased opinions of Fox News, so I dont think her opinion was very far off, if Fox News wasn't right leaning, he would not watch it.

 

[DVCLiz]

You said you couldn't get past the report that the clothes were folded neatly. I assumed you meant you thought she was guilty because you believed someone would have folded them, the same person who committed the murder. I assumed you would have voted "Guilty" if you'd been on the jury based on your statement.[/QUOTE]

You assumed all that from one sentence? Geesh! I'm glad you are not on a jury

No less rational than thinking that not be able to get "passed" something indicates you thought it was evidence against the mother. BTW, it's "past."

 

[Sabrefan]

No less rational than thinking that not be able to get "passed" something indicates you thought it was evidence against the mother. BTW, it's "past."

I didn't say anything about the mother....sorry about the mistake with past, seriously

BTW, it's "being"

 

[happygirl]

Politics are against DIS guidelines so I wont go into your statement too much other than to say that is quite an assumption based on her opinion of Fox News, my step father is a VERY far right conservative and he acknowledges the biased opinions of Fox News, so I dont think her opinion was very far off, if Fox News wasn't right leaning, he would not watch it.

LOL LOL

 

[Sabrefan]

LOL LOL