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- Forget it?

If you'd ever had the chains on you,

you'd never forget it.

Who are these?

- There's somebody missing!

We want as many men as possible.

- Come on!

Mary!

- Mary!

- Mary!

Found her!

She's here!

- We found her.

- No, no! - Stop!

- Are you Max Stuart?

- No, not me, boss.

- Hey, you.

Are you Max Stuart?

What are you doin' hidin' there?

- I'm not hidin'! - Get him!

- Come on.

- Get in you black mongrel.

- “I went down to the beach.

I saw this little girl.

I was pretty full then.

She was in the water, playing.“

I got them.

- Put some sand out the back.

This is the fella that murdered that little girl.

I want ya to tell us whether

his footsteps are the same as the ones

we showed ya near the cave.

Well?

Look, we know he's not one of your mob.

This abo's from out of town.

- Come on!

- That's him.

- Where's my bloody will?

- The will.

- I told you I'd be here to get it, now where is it?

I've been in here three times to get it.

You've lost it again, haven't ya?

I haven't lost it.

- Hello, O'Sullivan & Devaney.

No, he's a bit busy at the moment.

Can I take a message?

I'm his partner.

- This is my wife's Christmas present.

- A will?

What better way to show your wife you love her?

- Indeed, Mr. King.

If I were your wife I'd want that will signed

as soon as possible.

- I shoulda known.

You gotta pay good money to get a good lawyer.

- You've won the lottery.

- Ah, Jesus.

- Dave, your brilliance doesn't extend to your papennork.

I told you before, let me deal with the fiddly stuff.

So, what is it?

Car thieves, neighbour dispute?

- Black fella accused of raping

and killing a nine-year-old white girl.

- I didn't read about that.

- Didn't happen here in Adelaide,

it happened in ceduna.

That's the last town before the west Australian border.

- That's great.

This is a copy of your confession.

Are these your words?

- Suppose so.

I can't read and write.

- You can't read or write?

Did they read it back to you?

And you signed it?

- They told me to sign 'em, so I signed 'em.

- Did you say you're innocent?

Did you have any representation?

Was anyone with you?

- No, only six policeman there.

- Six policeman?

It's been calculated that the murder happened

between six and 12 Saturday night.

Do you understand that?

Now, do you have any witnesses for that time?

- Witnesses?

- Witnesses, people who saw you on Saturday night.

- Been drinking.

Coupla blokes along the beach.

- So you were drinking with them

all night between six and 12?

- No, I then stopped at nine, nine o'clock.

- Look, Max, this is very important.

Do you have any witnesses for the time

between nine and 12 Saturday night?

- No.

I been in here.

Policemen been locked me up for bein' drunk.

- Between nine and 12?

- Hm.

Well, Max, if you were in here,

you couldn't possibly have killed her.

Now, Dr. Thompson, you said in your report

that after examining the body of the victim

you estimate she was killed between six

and 12 Saturday night.

- No, she was killed between noon and six P.M.

- That's not what you said in this report.

- After I spoke to the police pathologist in Melbourne

I decided to reexamine the body,

and I found that one of the wounds had maggots in it.

- And?

- Well, blowflies don't strike after sunset.

- Don't you think it rather incompetent

not to have noticed this before?

Mr. O'Sullivan.

- Did you know my client was in jail

between nine and 12 on the Saturday night

when you made your first examination?

- No.

- But you were aware of that before you changed your mind?

- Yes, I was.

But hearing that he was in jail

and the revision of my original data

had nothing to do with one another.

- Oh, I'm sure.

- Mr. O'Sullivan, Dr. Thompson is an expert

in forensic medicine.

- Expert?

Is she gonna change the times

of the murder again to next week?

- I can remember when city lawyers

had much better manners than you.

All that Dr. Thompson has done

is to have had the honesty to change

her original findings when she re-examined the body.

- But that honesty has given my client

and myself no time to talk about

his whereabouts from noon till six.

- If this hearing goes to trial, you will have the time.

- Now, Max, we have to account for the hours

between two and four o'clock.

You got a taxi from the general store

with that boy, Allan moir, at one o'clock, right?

- Yeah.

Then you go to the funfair,

dropped off moira and go to thevenard to have a drink.

- Thevenard, eh?

- Why didn't you go for a drink

to the ceduna hotel when it's closer?

- Ceduna hotel don't like black fellas.

They don't like black fellas drinking there?

Yeah.

So you tell the taxi driver

to pick you up in half an hour's time.

You have a drink at the thevenard hotel,

and the taxi driver doesn't turn up,

so you have to walk back to the funfair?

Yeah.

- So you walked past the place

where Mary hattam was killed?

- Yeah, and I never seen anything.

- You seen nothin'?

- Yeah.

- So you were back at the funfair by two o'clock?

Yeah.

- How'd you know it was two o'clock?

- Come win a prize.

Win a prize for the girl.

I start at two o'clock.

I get back there before I start.

- Max, why did you sign the confession

that you killed the little girl?

Don't know.

- Thanks.

God, he drank a lot that day.

He's a half-cast,

for most of them it's a way of life.

- Now. If he were back at the funfair by two o'clock,

and the prosecution now says

she was murdered between 2:30 and four, he has an alibi.

Maybe the owners of the funfair can vouch for him.

- The geiseman's?

Disappeared.

- What do you mean?

- We're not talking a three ring circus.

It's a pathetic little funfair.

It's vanished into thin air.

Some people think they're in queensland,

others say the northern territory.

Police can't find them.

- Don't wanna find 'em.

We should find 'em, we should track them down.

- We haven't got the money nor the time.

Who's to say they'd corroborate Stuart's alibi?

Let's change our plea.

- To what?

- At least if we plead diminished responsibility

he won't hang.

He was drunk, he didn't know what he was doing.

- People saw him at the funfair at the time of the murder.

- Chamberlain will have witnesses to say the opposite.

No one can agree on the times.

Forget it, it's a dead end.

- You think he did it.

- That's beside the point.

We have no defence.

Why didn't you take any casts

of the footprints on the beach?

- They weren't defined enough.

- So really, you had no evidence against

my client before the interrogation began?

- I suppose not.

- It was constable witrod who typed out what was said.

- Yes. - Word for word?

- Yes.

- Max Stuart dictated every part

of the confession without any prompting, just like that?

- Well, once sergeant Turner told him

the black trackers would recognise his tracks,

he knew we had him cold.

- Tracks that nobody took a cast of or even photographed?

Trackers who were told he was guilty

before they'd even looked at his footprints?

- Your honour, this kind of rhetoric

is no substitute for actual statements.

- Mr. O'Sullivan, Mr. Chamberlain is right

as you jolly well know.

- Two hours seems an incredibly short time

to get a confession out of a man

who doesn't speak very good English.

What did you have to do, beat it out of him?

- Your honour, we seem to have progressed now

from rather clumsy rhetorical questions

to serious allegations against a police officer.

- This is not a rhetorical question, your honour.

This is one I feel needs to be answered.

- Constable Jones,

would you answer Mr. O'Sullivan's question?

- Of course we didn't beat it out of him.

- No, I suppose the six of you sat around politely asking

him if he'd like to confess.

- Mr. O'Sullivan, are you asking

a question or being sarcastic for effect?

- What I'm saying is quite simple, your honour.

The police beat the confession out of my client.

- Your honour, if my learned friend

is going to continue to allege

that the defendant was assaulted while in police custody,

it is incumbent on him to call witnesses.

These are serious charges and I request an adjournment.

- We'll adjourn for today

and resume tomorrow morning at the same time.

You two gentlemen can join me in my chambers

at nine o'clock.

- What the hell was that about?

- Did you see the way he looked at me

when I asked that question?

They beat the confession out of Max, I know it.

- Max has told us no such thing.

- Now, Max, I want you to listen very carefully.

Did the police beat the confession out of you?

Did they beat the confession out of you, Max?

Yeah.

- Why didn't you tell us before?

- I'm a black fella.

You gonna believe me?

- We believe you.

No, we believe you, Max.

What did they do?

- They put their hand around my throat.

- They tried to choke you?

- Yeah.

What else?

- They took me clothes.

- You were naked?

- They took me clothes and cut me hair with a razor blade.

- Wait a minute, I'm just trying to follow this, Max.

Where did the razor blade come from?

- In me pocket.

- Why'd you have razor blades in your pocket?

- They not mine.

Fella Allan, he borrowed my coat.

He been ieavin' 'em.

- I see.

What happened then?

- They cut my hair.

They was laughing.

- Why did they cut your hair with the razor blade?

- To say they wanted big evidence.

- What happened next?

- They put that razor blade on my throat,

and they threatened to skin me alive

if I didn't tell 'em what they wanted me to say.

- You don't believe that story do you?

- The judge will have to tell the jury

that Stuart's guilt stands or falls

on the confession alone,

'cause there's nothing else to convict him.

Any question about it, he'll walk.

- The jury's going to believe the confession is true.

- You know how they got it out of him.

- Dave, that defence rests

on Max's version of what happened.

We have no one to support his story.

- Look, this is how I think it went.

The murder happened on Saturday.

The police are at a loss on Sunday

till they get their black trackers down to the scene.

Now they say the footprints are those

of an aborigine from out of town.

Police are on a high. Max fits the bill.

Doesn't belong to the place.

They pile in a couple cars and head for thevenard

a couple miles away.

The police think Max is hiding.

All he's done is go for a leak,

but they don't care.

For certain they've got their man.

- What are you doin' hidin' there?

What have we got here?

Jeez.

Sharp.

Man could hurt himself if he wasn't careful.

They're so sure they have the right man.

They want that confession as soon as possible.

- You ever been skinned alive?

- No, boss.

- You got hair like a fuckin' golliwog.

I need a hair sample.

Now, Max. I want you to tell us what you know.

- I been working in funfair.

Ain't never seen no little girl.

- Max, I really don't have the time.

What you're telling me is bullshit.

- No, boss.

- You've gone to seed, Max.

Used to be boxer, didn't ya?

Look what the fuckin' piss has done to ya.

- Now, I want you to tell me the truth, Max.

- What'd you ask me to say?

- How you killed the girl.

- I never seen a little girl.

- Crikey, Walker.

Don't do him in right now, I want him to speak.

- I ain't never killed that little girl, boss.

- Look, you've been giving us the run around for an hour,

and I've let you get away with far more than I should've.

Jonesy.

- No, boss, no, boss!

If Max wasn't scared before, he was now.

No, boss, no!

He had a real fear that if he didn't tell

them what they needed to hear, - I never seen a little girl.

They'd kill him.

- The great thing about you being black, Max,

it's very hard to see bruises.

Just as it's very hard to see the scratch marks

where that little girl struggled to save her life.

- No.

- Let's have a confession, Max.

Let's start from the beginning.

- “I Rupert Max Stuart, age 27 years,

labourer of Alice Springs,

having been warned by detective sergeant Turner

that I need not make this statement

do so voluntarily without fear.“

Max realised he would have

- to tell them what they wanted. - “ Of any nature,

state the following.“

- well, Max, start.

I been born-

- We're not fucking interested in the story of your life.

You came to ceduna on Friday

the 19th of December, 1958, didn't you?

- I been to ceduna-

- I came to ceduna.

Now pay fuckin' attention, Max!

- Yes, boss.

I came to ceduna on Friday 19th of December, 1958.

- Perfect.

Now, who did ya work for?

Geiseman.

Funfair.

And so, for the next hour,

- geiseman. - Afraid for his life,

Max tells them exactly what they wanna hear.

- You understand that we'll be arguing

that six policeman beat a confession out of Max?

- Of course I do.

- You understand that in this town,

the cops are second only to god?

And you know who god is, a judge.

They won't listen to you.

- Helen-

- you saw the public gallery.

Nobody cares about him.

- But we do.

White with one.

- Thank you, John.

- I apologise, your honour.

-Ah, Mr. O'Sullivan, tea or coffee?

- Black is fine.

Tea or coffee?

- Tea, whatever.

- Do you really intend to proceed with this defence?

If I were in your position,

I'd be entering a plea of guilty.

- If he pleads guilty in this state, he's gonna hang.

Also, the prosecution have no evidence except

for the confession, and I believe the police made that up.

- What do you mean the police made it up?

- I find it incredible to believe

that two policeman made up the story, let alone six.

- My client says the police beat the confession out of him.

- Roderic?

- I spoke to them last night, they all deny it.

- Of course they do.

- Do you seriously wish to alienate the jury?

- It's my defence.

- Are you trying to get run out of town?

- Look. The jury is going

to see six policeman one at a time take that stand

and deny what you are suggesting,

and they will be believed.

- Shouldn't we leave that up to the jury?

- Mr. O'Sullivan, you're on a hiding to nothing.

- No, I think it's my client that got the hidin'.

- Well, obviously there's no more to be said.

See you in court.

- Fine.

Why were there six policeman present

during the interrogation when it's normal procedure

to have only two?

- They were all interested in the case.

- And why did you ask my client to undress?

- So we could search him.

- So, he was totally naked during the interrogation?

- Yes.

- Is that normal police practise

to question people when they're naked?

Or is only when you're questioning aborigines?

Objection, your honour.

- Mr. O'Sullivan.

- When you searched my client,

did ya find some razor blades in his pocket?

- Yes.

I put them on the table with everything else.

- And when you first examined the body of the victim,

you found a hair in each hand?

- Yes.

I collected the hairs because I thought

it might be a vital clue.

- You thought it might be a possible lead.

Sufficiently so.

Did you take a tuft of hair from my client's head,

and use the razor blades to do so?

- Yes.

- That's strange.

There's no mention of hairs or razor blades

in any part of your report.

What was the results of the forensic analysis on the hair?

- It was inconclusive.

- Inconclusive?

It showed that they were black.

Did you at any time threaten him with that blade?

- I only cut his hair.

- Did you threaten him?

- Your honour, detective sergeant Turner

has already answered the question.

Mr. O'Sullivan.

- I have no further questions, your honour.

- The court will take a 30 minute recess.

All stand.

- Every single cop is gonna make life hard for us now.

- Chamberlain's gonna crucify Max on the stand.

- That's if we let him give evidence from the witness box.

He could make an UN-sworn statement from the dock.

But then the jury might think

he's too scared to give evidence.

- It's a risk we're gonna have to take.

The problem is he won't be able to read it.

So, Max, tell us in your own words

what you'd like to say.

- Me don't read or write.

I never been school.

How 'bout someone read 'em for me?

- Your honour, I object.

- My client is illiterate.

He's unable to read his own sworn statement.

I request that someone read it out for him.

- Your honour, the statement which the defendant wishes

to be read on his behalf

contains charges of criminal assault,

not to mention the implication

of conspiracy to commit perjury by six police officers.

Now, to allow such charges to be made in this way

does not permit them to be tested by cross examination.

- This is a crucial part of my client's defence.

He wants the jury to hear his account

of what happened that day.

If not, he's not being given a fair trial.

- Mr. O'Sullivan, your client is getting a fair trial,

which is why I cannot exceed to his request

to have someone else read his statement to the jury.

- Just someone to read it out for him.

- Your honour has already ruled

most properly on the subject.

Besides, making an UN-sworn statement

is tantamount to the defendant saying that he's guilty.

- Your honour, I must protest.

- Mr. Chamberlain, you've been a prosecutor long enough

to know that what you said is wrong.

I wouldn't have thought a man

of your experience would resort to such a cheap trick.

- Your honour.

- Please disregard Mr. Chamberlain's comments.

Mr. Stuart, you will need to tell the court what happened.

- I did not kill little girl. I did not kill her.

Police beat me, choke me.

What did he say?

- He didn't kill the girl.

The police choked him and he gave

them the confession that they wanted to hear.

- Your honour, these are not the defendant's words.

- The police assaulted my client.

- It really is inexcusable - in fact they skinned him

- to allow this kind of thing. - Alive with a blade,

and he said yes to anything.

- Rubbish!

Utter rubbish.

Gentlemen of the jury,

you are unanimously agreed on your verdict?

We are.

Do you find

the accused guilty or not guilty?

- Guilty.

And that if the verdict of you all?

- Yes.

- Rupert Maxwell Stuart.

You have been found guilty of the crime of murder

of Mary olive hattam.

It is my painful duty to order

that you be taken from this place

to the place from whence you came,

and there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead.

May god have mercy on your soul.

- Aren't you angry, Max? - About what they've done?

- No.

I always thought that bein' half-cast

would make me life easier.

You know, Mr. O'Sullivan.

I got some white fella blood in my veins,

but white fellas don't except me.

So, my own people didn't like me neither.

That's why I joined Jimmy sharman boxing crew.

I was a good boxer, Mr. O'Sullivan.

- Is that so?

- Went travelling everywhere with that mob.

I never lose a fight, always get all the girls.

I see cities for the first time.

I sawjungles up north.

You know, I see a elephant in the zoo one time.

Oh, he was a mean bugger.

Yeah.

You know what else I see, Mr. O'Sullivan?

- No.

- The sea.

I'm from desert.

I had my mouth wide open.

Everywhere. Water, water, water.

Yeah.

- Why didn't you stick to the boxing, Max?

- Mr. Sharman say I got it in me to be a champ.

- Why didn't ya?

- Booze, Mr. O'Sullivan.

Drinkin' and boxin' don't mix.

But I like travelling.

That's why I end up with the geiseman funfair.

Just a half-cast drunk.

So, this where I end up, eh?

Some bloke lucky.

- How do you mean, Max?

- Some bloke lucky, bloke who done this.

- Very well done, roderic.

Oh, thank you, Charles.

- He's an appauling piece of work.

- Yep, but he'll hang for it.

- I meant O'Sullivan.

- I'm grateful to ya for keepin'

me outta jail after that car crash.

- You're very lucky, Mr. Karskens,

you were drunk after all.

You're meant to be away this weekend.

Remember karskens?

- We're going to appeal to the high court.

On what grounds?

- The police beat the confession out of him.

- The jury ruled they didn't.

The high court isn't gonna hear you

just because you disagree with the verdict.

- He was wrong in not allowing me

to read out Max's UN-sworn statement.

- The high court will agree with justice Reed.

Dave, it stops here.

- Helen, he's gonna hang.

There must be some grounds for appeal.

- There's nothing we can do.

- Why are you so bloody negative?

- Why don't you bloody listen to reason?

- You know, you two are sounding more

and more like a married couple.

- What are you doing here?

- Well, I wouldn't mind you handling another case for me.

- Not at the moment.

- I know you're a cop hater but I'm bringing you money.

- I do not hate the police.

- Well, you certainly had a very funny attitude towards

them when you were defending that abo.

- Get to the point.

- The police forced me to resign after I had the accident.

I got a fair few financial problems at the moment.

I got a lot of outgoings and not much coming in.

So, I want you two to take my ex-wife to court

and have the alimony payments halved.

- Money.

- Maybe some other firm could handle this.

- Look, I'm not the bad guy here.

She's got her boyfriend 'round there all the time.

- We'll take it on.

- Thank you.

- At least your partner's got some sense,

and by the way that abo hasn't got a hope in hell.

- Karskens, those policemen that arrested Max.

Do you know them?

- You know what's wrong with your defence, O'Sullivan?

Those cops probably beat the confession

out of that nigger only because they knew he did it.

- Sorry, Max, the boss has to know

what you want for your last meal.

Steak maybe?

Everybody likes steak.

Now, I know you're not a catholic, Max,

but this is the best religious person we could come up with.

- Hello, Max.

He didn't kill that girl, you know?

- Well, that's great father Dixon,

but it won't stop him from hanging.

- And I'm not a naive man, Mr. O'Sullivan,

takes a lot to convince me about the truth of things.

See, I speak arrernte, that's Max's first language.

As a priest I've spent a lot of time with his people.

And I spoke with Max today in the arrernte dialect

and he told me he was innocent.

- Father, it means nothing in court.

He could say he's innocent in 500 languages

and it would still mean nothing.

- Yes, I'm sure that true.

I don't doubt what you say,

but as I said, I spent a lot of my life working

with aborigine's and I've met

a lot of men like Max whose second language is English,

and what I'm tryin' to tell ya

is that there's no way that somebody like Max

coulda made that confession.

- Why not?

- Well you see, when a arrernte man speaks English,

he mixes up his arrernte sentence construction

with his English sentence construction.

So, the more often than not,

their English sounds like a real pea soup.

- What are you saying exactly, father?

- Well, what I'm saying is that the actual words

in that statement aren't Stuart's.

- Are you an expert in linguistics, father?

- Oh no, no, I'm not an expert.

I'm a bit of an amateur really.

- I'm afraid no one's interested

in the opinion of an amateur.

- But I do know the world's expert on arrernte,

and he'll confirm what I say.

At least I think so.

- You think so?

- Unfortunately, he couldn't be here for the trial.

He only got back from Europe a couple of days ago.

- Where is he now?

- Well, he's here, right here in Adelaide.

- Yeah.

- So what do you think?

- There is word in German, Mr. O'Sullivan,

is called, scheisse... shit.

For example, an aboriginal certainly

wouldn't say such phrases as,

“the funfair was situated at the ceduna oval, “

or words like, unconscious.

These words and sentences,

are absolutely implausible.

This confession is shit.

- So you'll be spending the night with the prisoner?

- He wants me to.

He would've preferred to have been confirmed

but it's too late now.

- Now listen, Max.

I know I don't have much time left.

This is Dr. Strehlow.

He's studied and lived with your people.

I don't wanna mess ya around, Max.

I don't want ya to mess around with me.

Did ya have sex with the little girl?

Did you kill her?

All right, all right, that's good, that's good.

But Max, I believe ya.

I do.

Now listen, listen to me.

You're leaving the thevenard hotel,

you're going towards the funfair in ceduna.

Now, do you understand?

Now, you tell me the truth.

- Four pound.

Funfair.

- Well, he's changed his testimony.

- Max claims he paid four pounds

to an aboriginal waitress at the thevenard hotel

to have sex with him before he went back to the funfair.

- Max, you told us you went for a drink.

Why didn't you tell us this before?

- Shame.

What?

- If he just had sex with a waitress at the hotel

then why is he gonna go and rape the child 30 minutes later?

As a final point of appeal,

please find attached to this application for postponement

of execution of Max Stuart,

an affidavit from professor strehlow,

regarding the authenticity of Stuart's confession.

This in itself is grounds for appeal to the high court.

- Hello, Norma?

It's Helen Devaney.

You're working late.

We have something important to drop off to justice Reed.

I see.

He's away for the weekend.

Norma, you couldn't let me have that address could you?

I'm afraid it's urgent.

Now Max.

This is it.

Come on, mate.

- I'm scared, father.

- Of course you are.

Hey.

You're a strong fella.

The arrernte people you come from. Strong people.

They know how to die.

- If this be my last walk,

let me do it right.

- What is it, Dawson?

- O'Sullivan's going to the high court.

- What for?

It's absolutely futile.

All he's doing is prolonging that aboriginal's agony.

- Yes, I heard about him when he was in law school.

He thinks the underdogs

get a raw deal in the judicial system.

- He's merely trying to make a name for himself.

Never underestimate a lawyer's ego.

- Now, what I can't understand

is why the high court would even hear this appeal.

- Because Stuart is an aboriginal.

So even though he's scum,

he's part of a vanishing race.

It's one of society's few gestures

of kindness toward people whose way

of life we have destroyed.

But you know, when I look at Stuart

I don't see a man with a black skin.

I see a man with a black heart.

See yourself out, Dawson, will you?

Yes, sir.

- And how were the ladies today?

- Soon we will have collected enough money

to build a new wing at the hospital.

So, it's not just gossip and ladies who lunch.

The ladies were talking about you.

- There's no way the high court

is going to take O'Sullivan seriously.

- I wasn't talking about the Stuart case.

I heard that it looks like

you will be the next chief justice.

Have you known about this for some time?

One of these days, roderic,

you should let me into your life.

Remember, I share it.

- How my client could've composed

without any outside assistance

such a first class legal document

to ensure his own destruction

is beyond human understanding.

For an illiterate person,

it would mean he'd have to be born a legal genius.

- Your honours, there is ample evidence

to suggest that Stuart's command of English

is more than adequate.

- Mr. Chamberlain, you have to admit

that the import of Mr. Strehlow's affidavit

must be of some concern.

Particularly when constable Jones

has sworn the confession was in the defendant's exact words.

I find some difficulty, not about what was said,

but as to how it was said.

In fact, certain features of this case

have caused some anxiety.

- May I be so bold as to bring your honours back

to the point in my opening remarks

as strehlow's evidence has come fonlvard too late.

This court has no jurisdiction

to entertain an appeal on the grounds of new evidence.

- If the law cannot change with society,

then surly it's in danger of jeopardising that

which it holds above everything else, justice.

- Because you have a man whom you regard as illiterate,

and incapable of expressing himself,

you want a special system of justice for him.

Well, you're just going to have to make do with this one.

We cannot retry the case.

New evidence is not the business of the high court.

- “He who keepeth his mouth shut keepeth his life.

He that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.“

- so, what's that supposed to mean?

- Oh, it's his victory speech.

- We lost the appeal.

- So they're gonna hang me again?

- Max,

these people,

they, they, they don't...

- I'm a long way from home.

Maybe I go home when they kill me.

How's Max coping with it all do you think?

- I don't think he has much faith left

in the white man's law.

- There's nothing more you could have done.

I think we should get out of this town.

- You do? - May we sit down?

I'm Rupert Murdoch, I own “the news.“

this is Rohan rivett, my editor,

and you are of course, Mr. O'Sullivan and Ms. Devaney.

Now, are first names all right?

This Max Stuart thing,

they're gonna hang an innocent man aren't they?

- I believe so.

- Rupert and I were talking about the judgement

the high court has just handed down,

and one phrase stuck like a fish bone in our throat.

“Certain features of this case have caused some anxiety.“

- now, why would they say that, Dave?

- They know that Max couldn't have dictated the confession.

- But they wouldn't accept your grounds for appeal?

Now, look,

the judicial system in this country's not only antiquated,

it's against the poor and the people

who can't defend themselves.

- We like it when people talk like that.

- Our crusade is to drag Adelaide into the 20th century.

I mean, someone's gotta get hold

of the establishment and give it a good shake.

- That's what I'm gonna do. My newspaper

is gonna defend Max with all its might.

- Now, we'll need your help-

- wait a minute, defend him?

Defend him from what?

- From hanging of course.

- You can't stop him from hanging.

- We believe that a true Australian sense of justice

demands that the guilt of a man

be established beyond even the most slender of doubts.

- In south Australia,

if a man kills he dies for it.

- This is also a fight against capital punishment.

We don't wanna see any man hang.

- Helen, I know that you understand the power of the press.

Perhaps you think I'm a boy in short pants,

but the one chance that you have

in saving Max's life is for my newspaper to kick up a stink.

So, no matter what you think of me,

think that my newspaper can help save Max's life.

- I want you to understand that that man

will hang in three weeks.

- There is no other Avenue of appeal?

- Not unless we go to the privy council,

the highest court in the British commonwealth.

Only once in a blue moon do they condescend

to hear an appeal.

- So it is possible?

- First off, where would we get

the money for an appeal to the privy council?

Gentlemen, we're broke.

We've been through three court cases and lost each one.

The people in this town hate us.

As far as they're concerned,

we're the abo-loving duo who's saying

the police force and corrupt and violent

and the justice system is protecting them.

- Yes, but we're gonna defeat the system

by using our newspaper

and by you two going to the privy council.

- This priest is certainly good human value in all this.

Now, without him you wouldn't

have got to strehlow.

- Excuse me.

Helen, Helen, why don't we give it a try?

- No.

The privy council is for experienced barristers and q05.

We're just solicitors.

We can't do it.

- Helen, if we don't do this, who will?

Here he comes.

Hey father, father, look over here.

- Father Dixon.

I'm Rohan rivett from the “Adelaide news.“

- hello.

- You have grave doubts about Max Stuart's guilt, don't you?

- Indeed I do.

- I don't know why we celebrate Australia day on January 26.

After all, all it is is the celebration

of the arrival of some convicts in new south wales.

Adelaide was not founded by convicts.

- Some of our Adelaide ancestors made up for lost time.

- I'm waiting for the announcement, roderic,

of your becoming our next chief justice.

- I don't know anything about that.

- Oh, roderic, don't be so silly.

- Why do you imagine, roderic,

“the news“ is making such a fuss about this awful abo?

- I wouldn't know, I never read it.

Personally, I only ever buy “the advertiser."

Are you helping to swell the circulation

of Mr. Murdoch's newspapers?

- There's nothing wrong with reading “the news.“

- okay.

Excuse me.

The only people who read “the news“

are those who move their lips when they read.

- Roderic is a little more tense than usual.

The premier still hasn't made up his mind

about the chief justice position.

I thought you'd like to see it.

- A kraut defending an abo.

Well, that's news.

God preserve me from a newspaper proprietor's son

with too much time and money on his hands.

Throw it out.

I don't want that rag in the house.

I've also just learnt something else,

Mr. Chamberlain.

- Here we are, stirring up a hornet's nest

and “the advertiser" has got a small item on page five.

- Listen, I've been thinking we should

give O'Sullivan some money.

Othenlvise he's not gonna get the weight to fight this case.

Well, what do you think?

- Rohan. We'll hold a public subscription.

Let's get the public excited about this case.

- Yeah, but if they don't get enough money to sponsor him,

then a man'll die.

- Then a man will die.

- Yes, prime minister,

I have read the national newspapers.

No, I must protest, this is a state matter,

not a federal matter.

It's gonna sort itself out very quickly.

My crown prosecutor's got everything under control.

Thank you, prime minister.

What's going on, roderic?

The federal government interfering with state politics

for the first time since I've been premier.

For 20 years not one federal minister

has ever dared tell me what to do.

- “The news“ has whipped up this hysteria, sir.

- I don't know why people pay attention

to such muckrakers.

Now they're accusing the policeman of lying under oath.

- All that's easy to stop.

We get the police to threaten to sue Murdoch

and rivett for defamation.

- If we lose faith in the police force,

we've lost faith in justice.

Now the damn leader of the opposition

is calling for a stay of execution.

- That's already been given.

It's been confirmed that O'Sullivan

can appeal to the privy council.

So, a stay of execution is given automatically.

- I thought the first case

was gonna be the end of this matter.

Why all these appeals?

These stays of execution?

- It's this O'Sullivan fellow,

he just doesn't know when to give up.

- I'm not an educated man, roderic,

but it seems to me that someone

who potentially who could be chief justice

should be able to deal with such a pest.

- Listen, I'm curious.

- Why is Murdoch doin' all this?

- Well, as you know his father made his money on newspapers.

“The news“ is Rupert's inheritance.

He wants everyone to notice it,

and he believes in this cause.

Ah, he's like a son to me.

He'll never let ya down.

- You know, father, this scandal rag

is making a proper fool of you.

- Well, they can say whatever they like

if it'll save the man's life.

- When they make a fool of you,

they make a fool of the catholic church.

- Your grace, I have complete faith

that if I can find this funfair

they'll confirm Stuart's alibi

that he was with them when the little girl died.

- Do you know where the funfair is?

- Somewhere in northern queensland.

- Do you know how big northern queensland is?

- Yes, your grace, but the newspaper's prepared

to give me money to find them.

- You don't even know if these funfair people

will confirm Stuart's story.

No, I can't let you go.

I don't want to see you constantly

on the front page of that rag,

not our church.

- Please your grace, let me go.

The man'll die.

- Get up, get up.

- I won't get up until you give me permission to go.

Now I know what the prisoners

must feel like on their way to the guillotine.

- I'm curious.

Why do you drink so much?

- Jesus Christ.

Makes me feel good.

Impregnable.

Got me through university.

Do you know what it's like to be

the only woman in a lecture hall filled

with men who want you to fail?

A couple of drinks and I got an ego as big as a man's.

- Sure.

- Oh!

- Not for me, thanks.

- I didn't know you got free drinks in economy.

A Gentlemen in first class is paying.

- Excuse me.

- No thank you.

- I know what you're trying to do.

- I heard that your partner's personality blooms

with a little alcohol.

- You know, you strike me as the type

who would enjoy pullin' the wings off flies.

- Ah, Mr. Rivett, hi. - Yeah.

- I'm ed montale, I'm the stringer from “the news.“

- oh, good on ya, yeah.

- This is father Dixon. - Hi, nice to meet you.

- How do you do?

- The funfair's gone.

- You said they were in cairns.

- Yeah, well, they've pissed off.

Excuse my French, but some fella said

they're headin' towards Atherton.

- Atherton?

That's the middle of nowhere.

- Yeah, thereabout.

Don't you lot pray to god

or something in situations like this?

- Think we might have to.

- Yeah, we're not going back

until we've found the geiseman's.

- Max Stuart is a human being caught

between the stone age and white civilization.

His culture is not British,

but he does have his own system of justice.

We do not ask that your lordships try him under his system,

but surely we have asked this of Max.

- You're not here to instruct us, Mr. O'Sullivan.

You're here to inform us.

- The bloke back at the service station reckons

he's headed to mount isa,

so it's gotta be on this road.

Could be a caravan.

- Can't this bloody thing go any faster?

- Are you Mr. Geiseman?

- We contend that after physically threatening

and beating him, he told them what they wanted to hear.

- I cannot take what you have just said seriously.

By undermining the good name of the priest,

you undermine justice.

- Mr. O'Sullivan, you are not permitted

to put before council suggestions

about the police contrary to what

has been accepted by the Australian courts.

- Is his first language aranto?

- Arrernte.

- Then why didn't you find a translator

for him at the preliminary hearing?

- It was the outback.

There's no translator available.

- Then you should have called

for an adjournment and found one.

A good lawyer would have done that.

- My lords we are hopeful

of finding the owners of the travelling show

where my client worked.

We feel they would be of vital importance in this case.

They would establish the whereabouts

of my client at the time of the murder.

- But the alibi has not been established yet?

Why wasn't this evidence obtained before?

- They show had moved on, we couldn't find it.

- Speak up, Mr. O'Sullivan.

- We couldn't find it.

- You couldn't find this travelling show?

- It was a problem of distance.

No money was made available for finding them.

When we represent a client,

the government does not have

to supply funds to defend them.

- You didn't come here to criticise

your own government, Mr. O'Sullivan.

What you're saying is that you didn't search

for this funfair.

- We can only proceed upon

the material that is before us now.

- Max Stuart is due to be hanged on Tuesday,

and most certainly will be unless

you Grant leave to appeal.

- Why do you say that?

- I can only speak of some experience

of the government of south Australia.

- Are you trying to imply that south Australia exists

under some kind of lynched law,

whereby innocent men are hurried to the gallows

without being given the opportunity

to present new evidence?

If there is any substance of this information,

your government will surely act on it.

- A man has been condemned to death.

An illiterate aboriginal native.

All because he has never been able

to tell to a jury his version of what happened that day.

Now don't you understand that?

- I think we understand

more than you think, Mr. O'Sullivan.

- Mr. O'Sullivan, do you have anything to add?

Do you wish to add anything, Mr. O'Sullivan?

- I have nothing more to add.

- There is no need for you to speak, Mr. Chamberlain.

We will make our decision shortly, gentlemen.

They confirmed the times?

- Here's their affidavit.

- No other reporters know that you hired the plane?

- Nah.

- Okay, we're gonna stun everybody.

Rohan, the father Dixon angle's developed a hitch.

- In our unanimous decision,

we find there are no reasonable grounds for appeal.

Thank you.

This court is adjourned.

Ms. Devaney.

- Well, see where your gallantry's got you?

You're up shit creek without a paddle.

- So, you were right.

I didn't have the experience.

Do you know what the worst thing is?

Chamberlain's right, too.

Every lawyer's dream to speak in front of the privy council.

I did it out of vanity.

I should have thought more of Max than I did of myself.

- Any other lawyer would've given up long before this.

- What?

- Murdoch's found the geiseman's.

They're saying that Max was at work

the time the little girl was killed.

- They don't believe an aborigine,

why they gonna believe a couple of carnival people?

- Now we have an alibi.

- It's too late.

- Now we have grounds for a royal commission.

- Helen, I don't wanna let Max down again.

We can't stop now.

- “English lords.“

pompous arses.

- Now, Max, this is a request for stay of execution,

so I just need you to sign it.

- I can't, missus.

- Well, Max, you must.

Max.

- This many times.

Seven times, stop this close to killing me.

Seven times.

I got my heart in my mouth.

Seven times I been seein' myself finish up, dead.

Seven times is a long time.

- I know, Max.

- No, missus.

You do not know.

- Well, I don't know how much more of this I can take

and I haven't been through what Max has been through.

- You know that Max is relying on you?

- Oh, yes.

By the way.

The police, they mighta found out somethin'

about my personal life,

and they could use it against us.

- What's this, a friendly social call?

Are you workin' for a wife now?

I wanna know about the policeman

who arrested Max.

- Why should I help you railroad those blokes?

The nigger did it.

- Do you enjoy workin' here?

- I need the money.

- It suits ya just fine.

- Don't bloody push me.

You gonna pay me for informing on my friends?

- Friends?

They fired you from the force.

They don't care about you.

- A cop doesn't squeal.

- Look how you've ended up.

I've got six names.

Do you know any of them?

- Fuck me dead.

Where'd you learn handwriting?

- From a Robert Jones.

Oh, I'm sorry, miss,

you can't drink in here, it's a men's bar.

- Do you know father Dixon?

Do you see him often?

- We're just friends.

- In the biblical sense?

- In a biblical sense.

- We're worried there might

be newspaper publicity about this.

- Well, that's the last thing he'd want.

I was thinking about headin' back to Victoria anyway.

This is a dump.

- I'm not asking you to go anywhere.

- It'll make things easier if I went, wouldn't it?

- 21 years.

In 21 years I've never had such an obnoxious opposition.

You know, there's only been one demonstration

against people that tried to cut train services,

but there was no abuse, no shouting.

Where the hell is that Chamberlain fellow?

- Holidaying in Hawaii.

- Hawaii?

Call him back here.

"Australia's zola, Australia's Dreyfus."

Australia's arsehole the more like.

That little boy publisher's gonna pay for this.

- No, it's not gutsy enough.

What is it?

- We're being summonsed.

What for?

- Charging us with seditious libel.

- I don't think the general public cares

one way or the other about him.

- Yeah. - Well,

besides Max Stuart, roderic,

you must be one of the most famous people in Australia.

I've been following you quite closely.

- Have you?

Is that the big print in "the news"

or the fine print in "the advertiser?"

- Maybe "the news" is more honest.

- Honest?

About what?

- It's obvious the police beat

the confession out of Stuart.

I mean, "the advertiser" pretends

things like that don't happen.

- Yes, and if they can beat the confession out of him,

they can do it to any one of us in this room.

- I'm sure they've done no such thing.

- Oh, don't be so silly.

They thrashed that black man.

O'Sullivan and Devaney will prove it.

- Prove what?

You don't know what you're talking about.

- None of you. - Listen-

- roderic... you know nothing.

You all live in a kind of cocoon.

- Please... no, please,

I'm gonna tell you what really happened.

I think you all better sit down.

- Come along, Mrs. Aston. - Roderic, please.

- Oh, I'm sorry, roma.

I insist.

Thank you, Emily.

Right, if you're all sitting comfortably I'll begin.

It starts with a film.

It is ceduna, the night before Mary hattam,

nine-year-old marry hattam, was raped and killed.

Stuart and his 15-year-old friend, Alan moir,

had arrived in ceduna that day,

and after setting up the funfair went to the movies.

There the drunken Max and young moir

pestered three girls sitting in front of them.

- Oh, you're proper pretty.

You're the most prettiest girl I ever seen.

Max was obviously keen on one girl

that was very attractive.

- Wanna come to the pictures with me next week?

The girls thought that he was creepy,

so instead of walking a mile and a half back to thevenard,

they got a taxi.

- You proper pretty.

Max was drunk enough

to think that even though olive hurried off in a taxi,

she was keen on him.

The next day, he and moira drank on the beach

till about one, then decided

to head off back to the funfair.

It's between one o'clock

and half past one when Max suddenly decides

he wants a taxi cab and gets

the owner of the general store to call for one.

Which is a bit strange because it's not

a long walk back to the funfair.

There is no disputing this by anyone.

At the most it's only three or four minutes

to the oval where the funfair is.

Even Max agrees that if he'd seen

the boss at the funfair, geiseman, he would've stayed.

But it wasn't two o'clock which was the starting time,

and he didn't feel like lunch with the others.

What he felt like

was having sex with the girl from the cinema.

Max asked the driver to return

in half an hour, which would still

give him plenty of time to get back

before two o'clock.

Half an hour.

Stuart sent word that he wanted

to meet the girl he'd meant last night at the cinema.

He asked where olive was

and was told quite truthfully that she wasn't there.

It was her day off.

So he continued to drink heavily and stewed with anger.

The girl he wanted wasn't there,

and that the taxi had not returned as promised.

He was a man who had wasted money on a taxi

and had not had the sex he was expecting

and was now forced to walk back in the boiling heat.

She was a female.

She was wearing only a bathing suit,

and he was drunk and angry.

He looked 'round to make sure

that there was nobody else on the beach

and walked towards what he wanted.

Them little birdies,

they live in the cave there.

Come on, I'll show ya.

Stuart says in his confession

that he asked Mary if she'd like

to see the little birdies in the cave.

- Right there.

Right up the back.

You go and have a look now.

Mary asked where the little birdies were.

Max's reply was devastating.

Now, you're gonna hear what happened next.

- Roderic, don't... no, you all wanna defend

this man, you should know the extent of his evil.

After smashing in the side of her head with a rock,

he started to unbutton his clothes.

- Roderic no more. - He was in a drunken fury.

Nevertheless, it is very difficult

to rape a nine-year-old girl.

But thankfully she was unconscious

so she was spared the agony of what he was doing to her.

When he'd finished,

she was breathing and moaning in pain.

And he realised that if he left her alive

she would tell people what had happened; Describe him.

The rape would send him to jail for the rest of his life,

he knew that.

So, there was only one thing he could do.

He knows if he's not careful

he'll get blood over his clothes,

so he takes them off.

Now naked, he picks up the rock again.

And with brutal savagery,

bring it down into Mary hattam's face.

Five more times he smashes in her skull

and each time blood spurts onto his chest and face.

After the the end of his attack

and certain that she is dead,

he pants with the effort of what he'd done.

Then he notices the blood on his chest.

To make sure there is not a trace of blood on him,

he washed himself in a rock pool.

Then he put on his clothes again,

and headed back into town.

No one really missed Max.

It was a slow day.

Some people remember him being there, others don't.

It all depends on what time they arrived.

If they arrived early at the funfair, they didn't see him.

If they arrived a little bit later, they did.

- I read in "the news" that the geiseman's said

that Stuart was at the funfair at the time of the murder.

- The only sense of time these carnival people have

is whether it is day or night.

- You are still avoiding the fact

that the police belted the confession out of him.

- Sometimes the end justifies the means.

- Some chief justice you'll make.

- Thank you, my darling.

No, the police did not have to resort to force.

That was not the reason he confessed.

- What was the reason, roderic?

- He may have been afraid of the police

but he was more afraid of the aboriginal black trackers.

He was brought up in a tribal community.

- I've had two of the best black trackers in the district

look at the footprints at the scene of the crime.

They'll be here in an hour to look at yours.

Then they beat him.

- Quite the contrary.

They laughed it out of him.

- Superciliousness knows no bounds.

- And neither does your ignorance.

No, my poor deluded guests,

the interrogation took a curious turn.

Jesus, Max.

You look as though you're in a shit ioad'a trouble.

Ah, listen, mate.

Jeez, I've been pissed and done stupid things.

Jonesy, you've done stupid things

when you're pissed, hey?

- Yeah, I can get shit faced.

- Jesus, Max, we're all blokes here.

Hey everyone, put your hand up

if you haven't been horny when you're drunk.

You see, Max, it's nothin' unusual.

Now, we're just bloke to bloke here.

See, now you're pissed as a fart, right?

And you see the girl.

Whoa!

And you're horny, right?

So they laugh about it, and Max confesses.

- Let's have a confession, Max.

As if confessing to a minor traffic accident.

- "I, Rupert Max Stuart,

age 27,

labourer of Alice Springs,

haven been warned by detective sergeant Turner

that I need not make this statement,

do so voluntarily without fear,

threat, reward of promise of any sort,

state the following."

Now sign it Max and we'll all get some rest.

Ya need it.

Well, we all do.

- I'll sign and we all get rest?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Then they stopped laughing.

- But that's their version isn't it?

- Yes, of course.

- And that's the only version

you want to hear isn't it, roderic?

- I'm not comparing Max Stuart

to my husband's natural vigour and energy,

but it would seem to me that if a man has had sex,

I don't know if he'd go searching for it 20 minutes later.

- Yes, well, that's a new addition to Stuart's alibi,

that he'd had sex with one of the girls

at the thevenard hotel.

Stuart was asked to identify her from a photograph,

and he said in his own inimitable language,

"yep, that's the girl I rooted."

We've had her examined by a doctor.

She is a virgin.

- "The news" said Stuart picked

the wrong girl from the photographs.

- "The news" would say that the sun sets in the east.

- It's easy for you to think that somebody

like Max Stuart is evil

because you have such a poor opinion of human beings anyway.

- I am so certain that Max Stuart raped

and killed that little girl that if no one else

had the courage to hang him,

I would pull the lever myself.

- I bet you would.

- Call Norman George geiseman.

- Now Mr. Geiseman,

when father Dixon found you in queensland,

tell us what you told him.

- He asked us if we knew the movements

of Max Stuart on Saturday afternoon.

I told him we all had lunch on Saturday except for Max,

who come in about quarter to two.

- Can you be sure of that time?

- Oh yeah, yeah.

I told Max he could have some lunch

and at two o'clock I looked at my watch,

said time to start.

Max went to work on the dart stall.

And several times between then and four,

I could see him in the tent with Betty oaks.

He was on the knock 'em downs.

- Where is this line of questioning heading, Mr. O'Sullivan?

- Well, your honour, Mr. Geiseman's testimony proves

that my client was at the funfair at the time of the murder.

- It proves no such thing.

Why should we believe Mr. Geiseman when

we have other witnesses say

that Max Stuart wasn't there at those times?

- An employer would surely know

if an employee was at work or not.

- A side show owner doesn't exactly come

with the highest credentials as an employer.

I think we can dismiss Mr. Geiseman's testimony.

As your report says,

Max consumed a lot of alcohol that day.

- Yes, a very considerable amount.

- It also states that you found

no blood stains on either Max

or his clothes, despite the fact

that the walls were covered in blood.

- As he says in his confession,

he took his clothes off before attacking the girl

and aftenlvards washed himself in the sea.

- What is your opinion of the aborigine, detective sergeant?

- The ones I've come across seem okay.

A bit simple.

- Could you describe Max Stuart as simple?

- Well, I don't think he's that intelligent, yeah.

- And when drunk, he'd be even more stupid

and unthinking wouldn't he?

- Well, judging by what he did, yes.

- How is it then that this stupid,

unthinking, brute of a man caught up

in some kind of supposed blood lust

about to rape a young girl, suddenly stops

in the middle of his action,

takes off all his clothes in case he gets blood on them?

I would think a man would have

to be highly clinical in his actions.

Intelligent, sober.

- Mr. O'Sullivan, confine yourself to facts.

Thank you.

- Would you say you had a bit of a short fuse

when it comes to alleged sex offenders?

- I'm not aware of that.

- Two years ago did not you and another policeman

so severely assault a man accused

of a sex offence that the judge threw

the case out of court?

- I can't recall.

- I'd like to give you a further opportunity

to rethink your reply.

Mr. O'Sullivan,

The witness has already stated he cannot remember.

- I must be able to cross examine this witness, your honour.

- Call the next witness.

Have you ever threatened

or beaten anyone during interrogation?

- No, never.

- Let me remind you then.

You were once speaking to a lawyer,

a Mr. Cameron Douglas,

and you said you didn't

like questioning women because quote,

"you cannot hit them over the head with a rubber hose.“

did you or didn't you say that?

- I can't remember.

- Do you then remember Mr. Douglas replying

that he was surprised that such things happen,

and then you said,

"if you don't treat them like that,

you wouldn't get anywhere."

- No, that's a lie.

- I suppose you don't remember Mr. Douglas?

- No, I can't remember.

- Perhaps I can jog your memory then.

- Objection, your honour.

All of this is uncorroborated hearsay

and not of it is relevant.

- Mr. O'Sullivan, constable Jones

has already answered, "he can't remember".

He's not obliged to say anything more.

- If you want me to stop cross examining, I'll stop.

- I haven't the slightest intention

of stopping your cross examination,

but as far as I'm concerned I've heard enough of this.

- If you're gonna take that attitude,

I feel it's pointless to continue.

- If you feel it's helping you to convince us,

well and good.

- I feel it's impossible to convince you.

You've already said you've heard enough.

Mr. Chamberlain?

Thank you, your honour.

During this royal commission,

I find myself defending, not only the police force,

but also the institutions of government.

I make no apology for this.

On the contrary, I consider it an honour.

We seem to have reached the stage of mob rule,

where a newspaper is free to savage

and defame those who cannot protect themselves,

and where the vilest allegations

are made against people who've not only done their duty,

but done it to the best of their ability.

Now, as we're all aware,

a royal commission is set up by the government

to fully investigate and report on a particular matter.

New evidence can be heard,

and witnesses appropriate to that matter can be questioned.

Now, I will be calling witnesses

who will contradict geiseman's statement,

and evidence that will totally refute

these baseless allegations of police brutality.

- He's more bloody British than the British.

- One thing I'm looking fonlvard to on Monday, O'Sullivan,

that's cross examining you.

Enjoy your weekend.

- Now, Mr. Murdoch,

you're entitled to have your lawyer here

as this is merely a hearing to determine

if you are to go to trial charged with seditious libel.

Who is the editor-in-chief of "the news"?

- Mr. Rivett.

- Do you confer with him daily

with respect to the publication of "the news"?

- I refuse to answer that question

on the grounds that it might incriminate me.

- Do you give him any directions

or advice on what to print or what not to print

in regards to what appears in "the news"?

- I refuse to answer that

on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

- Have you seen this before?

- Yes.

- Is it published by "the news"?

- Yes.

- And this one?

- Yes.

- Thank you very much.

Hello, Charles.

- Roderic.

So, you get to put O'Sullivan on the stand tomorrow?

- Indeed.

He'll be like a kangaroo caught in the headlights.

- Well, he's certainly given you the runaround, hasn't he?

- I can get him for not properly representing his client.

Finish him for good.

Thank you, Nigel.

The whole business has gone on long enough.

- The law should never be personal, roderic.

- Well, now those two have made it personal.

- Let's say you were to prove

that O'Sullivan had not defended Max Stuart properly.

Do you know what that means?

- Yes, I win.

- No, we lose.

If you won the case against O'Sullivan,

who's to say any of us can't be called out

for the tiniest mistake we've made at defending our clients?

It will be a free for all.

So many people in the legal profession

are worried that you will succeed.

The trouble is in any other court in the land,

O'Sullivan will be judged as having done

a good job and get off Scott-free.

But there's a lot of resentment against

it here and there could be a judgement against him.

- I'm sorry, what are you saying?

-All I'm putting to you are the pros

and cons of putting him on the stand.

You see the world in black and white.

When are you going to learn

that sometimes it's a shade of grey?

Would you excuse me for a moment, roderic?

Ah, good of you to see me.

- Justice Abbot.

- I'm sorry we can't go inside proper

but it's a private club.

So, tomorrow morning your future's at stake.

- I'm very aware of that.

- I suspect that if you were to plea guilty something minor

like inefficiency you couldn't fully afford

to defend Max Stuart,

it would result in nothing more

than a rap over the knuckles.

- I wasn't inefficient.

- Merely a formula.

Othenlvise, if you plead not guilty

and they find you guilty

of not properly defending your client...

Lawyers such as yourself who are not well off,

well, I can understand your irritation

at being called to defend clients without fees

simply because your lottery number comes up.

Your case could be just the example to use.

Lawyers called up to defend clients

who can't pay for their services should be remunerated.

It's natural justice.

Only that way can they defend their clients properly.

- So I'm to be used as an example?

- And very soon aftenlvards,

the government will bring in legal aid

to help lawyers defend their clients.

You'd be much thanked.

- But Max is still gonna die.

- I'm trying to appeal to your altruism.

- You're trying to sacrifice me and Max.

- And you are attempting to undermine

the integrity of the police force

and the legal system in this state.

Why did you bother to come and see me?

- I wanted to see what the offer was.

I'm trying to save Max's life and my own reputation.

- And tomorrow you could lose both.

Don't be a fool.

- I'm a foolish man, justice Abbot.

Good afternoon.

Yep?

Order in the house.

- That's the parliament.

Can you believe it?

No longer a place for reason and debate.

It's become a place for demagogues and rabble.

Roderic, I remember you telling

me how simple the Stuart case would be.

- Well, that O'Sullivan fellow is very pesky.

- Pesky?

Yes, that's the word.

I've only ever called royal commissions when I've known

what the outcome would be,

this time I'm not so sure.

- You need have no fears on that level, sir.

The judges will uphold the original verdict and he'll hang.

- First time in 20 years as premier I've had death threats.

- Well, I'm sorry, sir.

-So am I.

It's all become too complicated.

I want to cut the Georgian knot.

- You mean the gordian knot.

- Last night I was thinking it's all very simple,

and only I could provide the solution.

- What solution is that, sir?

- People are very concerned

that we're going to execute that aboriginal fellow.

But we're not going to.

You are going to go back into the royal commission

and tell them the government

had decided to commute the death sentence.

- But he killed that little girl and he should hang.

- I quite agree but politics

has nothing to do with justice.

A potential chief justice would understand that.

- But sir, I'm certain that the royal commission

are going to confirm-

- the key is, roderic, the death sentence.

If we get rid of that this whole business

will be forgotten and so will Max Stuart.

- But it goes against the grain

of everything I believe in.

I can't do it.

- Oh, you'll do it 'cause I'm the premier

and the crown prosecutor obeys the law

and the law now is that Max Stuart will not hang.

Now, let's sort out this rattle.

The house will come to order.

- This is an editorial I've just been writing

about the injustice of O'Sullivan

being put on the stand today.

See what you think.

I reckon it's pretty good.

- Rohan, I need to have a word with you.

- Calling a Mr. David O'Sullivan.

- You'll not be needed in the witness box, Mr. O'Sullivan.

Would you like to take this opportunity

to make your closing remarks?

- Thank you, your honour.

First, let me address what I was accused of.

Failing to get an interpreter

for my client and the preliminary hearing at ceduna.

There was no need to.

He had the perfect alibi,

till the local pathologist changed

the story at the last moment.

- We appreciate the fact, Mr. O'Sullivan.

- Do you also appreciate the fact

there was another lead in this case?

A blue Holden car was spotted

near the scene of the crime.

But the police did not follow up in this lead.

Much easier to find a black fella than a blue car.

They thought no one would care

that an aborigine got railroaded,

because who cares in this state about a boong,

about a nigger?

About Max Stuart?

A man caught between two cultures.

One grandparent was white, the other's black.

He belongs in neither world.

Now there's no doubt that he drinks too much,

but there's also no doubt that I believe him

when he says the police were gonna skin him alive

unless he made that confession they wanted to hear.

Just as Mr. Chamberlain

here absolutely believes in his guilt,

so I believe in his innocence.

And it has cost me much.

Even to the extent of having

to defend my own professional ability.

Now, I'm not gonna pretend I haven't made mistakes.

Many times I've asked myself,

"would someone else have done a betterjob?“

this cost my partner and I our business,

and here in Adelaide, our reputation.

But we will only feel we failed if Max Stuart hangs.

You must know in your heart of hearts

that he could not have made that confession.

Your honour, I ask you now,

let right be done.

- Thank you, Mr. O'Sullivan.

Your honours,

with your permission I would like to address the court.

- Yes, Mr. Chamberlain.

- The premier has instructed me to say

that in the circumstances,

the government has reached the conclusion

that it is no longer proper to delay

this decision as to the carrying out of the death sentence.

I am therefore instructed to inform your honours,

that cabinet has decided to recommend to his excellency

that the death sentence should be commuted.

This decision is of course in no way designed

to prejudice the commission's inquiry

into the propriety of the conviction.

Order, order!

- Thanks very much, I appreciate it.

It's very kind of you.

Thank you.

- You think you've won don't you, O'Sullivan?

Well let me assure you,

the prison sentence he'll get

will make him wish he'd been hanged.

And you two will be lucky to get a case defending

a parking ticket in this town.

- You don't know what's happened, do ya?

You thought you were one of them

but all they've done is made you the messenger boy.

You failed, Mr. Chamberlain.

But don't worry, I expect they'll give ya a knighthood,

then they'll forget all about ya.

- So they won't hang me?

- No.

The sentence has been commuted.

They won't hang you.

- So I leave now?

- Not exactly, Max.

It's up to parliament now.

You could be here for some time.

- Justice not come quick, eh?

- No, Max, justice don't come quick.

- Thank you, Mr. O'Sullivan, Ms. Devaney, father.

You all done your best.

I sit and wait for justice to be done.