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It was hot and dusty, and, by 2pm, the rec hall was packed. Family had come from all over, crisscrossing red-dirt desert roads for a funeral. It had been a big day in Yuendumu on Saturday, November 9, 2019. He leant forward after the last witness and whispered in his counsel’s ear. The second and third shots – one of them fatal – were fired at such close range that black soot from the Glock pistol was left on Walker’s skin. But this fatality, as far as the accused was concerned, was a matter of self-defence.Ĭonstable Zachary Rolfe shot 19-year-old Arnold Walker, who was armed with first-aid scissors from a medical kit, three times inside his grandmother’s house in the remote Central Desert community of Yuendumu. Every emotion he failed to contain would be judged, every absent emotion noted.
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Still, having the accused give evidence seemed reckless.
#Brett walker murder trial#
The dead Indigenous teenager at the centre of this trial had few Aboriginal peers in the jury pool and none in the final jury, a common anomaly in the Northern Territory, where 30 per cent of the population is Indigenous, yet they represent 84 per cent of the prison population. Out the door went Africans and several Asians. To the eye, they were an all-white jury bar one young Asian woman, after the defence had issued the majority of their 12 challenges to potential jurors as soon as a person of colour was called. They entered and exited the courtroom, sometimes four or five times in quick succession, as lawyers argued a point in their absence. The five-week trial felt tight and the jury inscrutable, as they literally wrestled with the evidence, white folders stacking up in their arms. “So, no, I don’t think he’ll give evidence.” I’d agreed. “Rule of thumb, the accused only gives evidence if the defence thinks their case has gone to shit,” a reporter quipped when we’d earlier wondered if Rolfe would take the stand. Word has quickly spread: Rolfe is giving evidence, now! The spare seats fill with legal aid lawyers and anyone else they called out to as they hurried to the Supreme Court in Darwin, a tall, white building framed with palm fronds. The heavy court door opens and closes as Rolfe and his defence counsel perform this to-and-fro.
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He teaches them about “reactionary gaps” (the time it takes to observe a threat, decide how to react, and then to act), flash-bangs (stun grenades) and even the torch attached to his lapel when on duty (Guardian Angel brand). Solicitous even, as he beats his defence counsel to his own enquiry: “Would you like me to explain it to the jury?” And so, the jurors become a learning group and Rolfe their instructor. On the shooting in Yuendumu and the trial of Northern Territory policeman Zachary RolfeĬonstable Zachary Rolfe is confident and helpful.
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