The Socio-Legal Construction of Motherhood in the Chamberlain Case
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WEEPING ON CUE: THE SOCIO-LEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF MOTHERHOOD IN THE CHAMBERLAIN CASE By EMMA CUNLIFFE B.A. The University of Melbourne, 1999 LL.B. (Hons) The University of Melbourne, 1999 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF LAWS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Faculty of Law) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August, 2003 © Emma Cunliffe, 2003 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Faculty of Law The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada ABSTRACT This thesis considers the influence and effect of the dominant Australian ideology of motherhood on the Chamberlain case. Lindy Chamberlain was convicted on 29 October 1982 of murdering her baby daughter, Azaria. Her conviction was overturned in 1988 after a Royal Commission into her trial. Two main explanations have been proposed for Chamberlain's wrongful conviction. The first explanation is that the scientific evidence adduced in support of the prosecution was seriously flawed. The second is that Chamberlain's right to a fair trial was prejudiced by the enormous media attention focused on the case. I argue that each of these factors influenced the jury's decision to convict Chamberlain but that each factor and the outcome of the case were also affected by the jury's assessment of Chamberlain as a mother. The failure of the scientific evidence was also at least partly attributable to the fact that certain scientists, convinced on the basis of behavioural evidence that Chamberlain was guilty of murdering Azaria, conducted their scientific investigation with tunnel vision and therefore overlooked anomalies that invalidated their results. The scientific and media discourses were also influenced by the dominant ideology of motherhood. I have identified at least three discursive constructions of motherhood in the Chamberlain case. The Crown presented Chamberlain as a murdering mother, whose strange behaviour after Azaria's disappearance could be attributed to her guilt. The defence sought to construct Chamberlain as a good mother - sentimental and loving - who related normally to her daughter and who deeply grieved Azaria's death. Chamberlain presented her own view of herself as innocent yet angry at the misappropriation of her daughter's memory and at the damage that the legal process and media attention had inflicted on her family. The disjuncture between Chamberlain's persona and the mother constructed by the defence likely served to entrench juror suspicions about Chamberlain's honesty and the bona fides of the defence as a whole. I have drawn on a unique source of information - the notes taken by juror Yvonne Cain throughout the trial and jury deliberations - to demonstrate the relative influences of media, science and common sense notions of motherhood. These notes suggest that the jurors' assessment of Chamberlain as a mother was crucial to the decision to find her guilty of murder. They also provide some insight into the method by which juries construct a case story and seek to assimilate evidence into that story. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT '. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v CHAPTER ONE: A BABY WAS KILLED 1 1. The Chamberlain case .1 2. A legal history of the Chamberlain case 6 3. Departures: (Re)considering the Chamberlain case 12 CHAPTER TWO: THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CONCEPTIONS OF MOTHERHOOD IN THE CHAMBERLAIN CASE 18 1. Introduction 18 2. The dominant ideology of motherhood 24 3. Conclusion 29 CHAPTER THREE: THE LOVE OF A MOTHER FOR HER CHILD: CONSTRUCTIONS OF CHAMBERLAIN'S MOTHERHOOD 31 1. Introduction 31 2. The origins of disbelief 32 3. "Azaria died by her mother's hand": the Crown construction of Chamberlain's motherhood 40 3.1 The Chamberlains' reaction to Azaria's disappearance 42 3.2 Inconsistencies in Chamberlain's account of the dingo 45 4. "This mother's love and affection for her baby": the defence construction of Chamberlain ..50 5. "My baby daughter": Chamberlain's narrative construction of herself 54 CHAPTER FOUR: REALMS OF SCIENCE, REALMS OF PROOF: THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE IN THE CHAMBERLAIN CASE... 62 1. "The professionals": science and scientists in the Chamberlain case 62 2. Boundary riding: constructing the presence of blood in the Chamberlains' car 73 2.1 Framing the scientific dispute 73 (1) The history of the inquiry into bloodstains in the Chamberlains' car 73 (2) Trial evidence about blood in the car 78 2.2 Blood stains and ivory towers: the construction and deconstruction of scientific expertise ...79 (1) The construction of expertise 80 (2) The contest over methodology 84 iii 2.3 Dirty work and eggheads: the distinction between practical scientists and academic scientists , 86 (1) Structural factors influencing the discourse about expertise 88 (2) The resolution of scientific disputes in the courtroom : 92 3. The relationship between the scientific evidence and behavioural evidence 96 4. Conclusion: the role of science at trial 99 CHAPTER FIVE: "IN THIS COURT, A MOTHER STANDS HER TRIAL": DECISION• MAKING IN THE CHAMBERLAIN CASE 101 1. Introduction 101 2. Trial by media? Conceptualising the media's role in Chamberlain's conviction 102 3. The "dangerous woman" and the "young mother with the faraway eyes": media representations of Chamberlain 108 4. "A trial according to law": legal process and the reification of law in the Chamberlain easel 12 4.1 "Evidence as we understand it in the criminal jurisdiction": The relevance of evidence law to law's claims to autonomy 112 4.2 "The tide of opinion and innuendo": Justice Muirhead's characterisation of the Chamberlain trial 115 5. "Our poor jury" and the "world outside": decision-making in the Chamberlain case 123 6. "What else could we do": juror decision-making in the Chamberlain case 126 6.1 "Too much to try and write" - notes taken during testimony 129 6.2 The importance of the scientific case to the decision to convict Chamberlain 134 6.3 The jury's deliberations 140 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION , 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY 158 APPENDIX A 166 APPENDIX B 168 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I first arrived at UBC, with a very different thesis topic, I knew one person in Vancouver - Professor Claire Young. I owe Claire an enormous debt of gratitude for opening my eyes to the possibility of undertaking a degree at UBC and for the fact that I now consider Vancouver my second home. Claire introduced me to Professor Susan Boyd and Professor Wes Pue. It was ^ during Wes's legal history seminar that this topic was first conceived and explored. The many conversations we have had about Chamberlain have always inspired me to think afresh about the case and my assumptions about it. Thank you Wes, for keeping me honest and enthused and for your unfailing support. Susan is, quite simply, the most brilliant supervisor I could hope for. She has taught me, guided me, and known when to push and when to let me catch my breath. Together with Claire, she has looked after me in more ways than I can number. Thank you doesn't quite seem enough, but thank you. The year in which this thesis was written was both wonderful and testing. Fiona Kelly has experienced most of it with me - from the picket lines to the parties. Fiona, I still can't quite believe that we missed one another at the University of Melbourne, but I'm glad I found you when I did. Thank you for your friendship and understanding. Much of my thesis was written at Green College - parts of it while lying in a hammock in the quadrangle. My Green College friends will be friends for life - not least my splitmate, Jamila Dunn, as well as Kristina Llewellyn, Christine Ferguson and Morgen Smith - and others too numerous to mention. Thank you also to my family - my mother, father and my sisters Clare and Sophie - and to my v best friend, Emily Merrett. Each cheerfully submitted at various times to weekend trips to the library, late night phone calls, and demands to send Twisties, Cherry Ripes and Milo. I could not imagine a more loving and supportive Melbourne base. This thesis is dedicated to my mother, for teaching me that just about anything is possible with a little bit of courage and a lot of persistence. In Australia, a lone woman is being crucified by the Press at any given moment. With no unedited right of reply, she is cast out into Aboriginal space. It's always for a defect in weeping she hasn't wept on cue or she won't weep correctly. She is rogue property. She must be taught her weeping. It is done for the millions. "A Deployment of Fashion" Les Murray From Conscious and Verbal (Manchester: Carcanet, 1999) vi CHAPTER ONE: A BABY WAS KILLED . 1. The Chamberlain case A baby was killed at Ayers Rock on 17 August 1980 during the evening, between 8 and 9 o'clock; it was a Sunday. ... Shortly after the event, the mother asserted, and thereafter continued to assert, that the dead child had been taken from the tent by a dingo. The Crown says that the dingo story was a fanciful lie, calculated to conceal the truth, which is that the child Azaria, died by her mother's hand.1 With these words, Ian Barker Q.C.