'Murphy on Evidence' bridges the gap between the academic and practical treatment of the law of evidence. Written by an author with many years of experience in both practice and teaching, this book contains a comprehensive academic analysis of the law and a wealth of information on how the law is applied.

While the law of evidence has dominated jurisprudential treatment of the subject, evidence is in truth a multi-disciplinary subject. This book is a collection of materials concerned not only with the law of evidence, but also with the logical and rhetorical aspects of proof; the epistemology of evidence as a basis for the proof of disputed facts; and scientific aspects of the subject. The editor raises issues such as the philosophical basis for the use of evidence; whether courtroom proof is essentially mathematical or non-mathematical; and the use of different theories of probability in legal reasoning.

Josiah Sutton was convicted of rape. He was five inches shorter and 65 pounds lighter than the suspect described by the victim, but at trial a lab analyst testified that his DNA was found at the crime scene. His case looked like many others -- arrest, swab, match, conviction. But there was just one problem -- Sutton was innocent. We think of DNA forensics as an infallible science that catches the bad guys and exonerates the innocent. But when the science goes rogue, it can lead to a gross miscarriage of justice. Erin Murphy exposes the dark side of forensic DNA testing: crime labs that receive little oversight and produce inconsistent results; prosecutors who push to test smaller and poorer-quality samples, inviting error and bias; law-enforcement officers who compile massive, unregulated, and racially skewed DNA databases; and industry lobbyists who push policies of "stop and spit." DNA testing is rightly seen as a transformative technological breakthrough, but we should be wary of placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of the same broken criminal justice system that has produced mass incarceration, privileged government interests over personal privacy, and all too often enforced the law in a biased or unjust manner. Inside the Cell exposes the truth about forensic DNA, and shows us what it will take to harness the power of genetic identification in service of accuracy and fairness.

In 1794 and 1799 Superintendent of Convicts Nicholas Devine was granted 210 acres on the edge of the current CBD of Sydney. After the demise of Governor Bligh (to whom he was closely allied) Devine reluctantly retired to his estate where, as an old man living alone, he was constantly beaten and robbed. An Irish convict named Bernard Rochford befriended the old man in 1825 and upon his death in 1830 forged a Will and seized control of the estate and proceeded to subdivide it and sell it off. Many of the purchasers (and others, including the Governor) knew Rochford was in no position to sell the land as even if the will he had was authentic, he was a nonetheless a convict and therefore was prohibited from holding property, let alone profit from its sale. Rochford sold much of the land in exchange for grog and was continually in court over a variety of issues. As devious as Rochford was, he proved no match for his wife whose deceit landed him in jail where he died in 1839. The 30 new landowners included judges, mayors, magistrates, aldermen, newspaper editors, solicitors and other Sydney luminaries. They believed that with Rochford’s death all suspicions regarding their ownership of the land would also die but that was not to be. In 1848 Nicholas Devine’s heir John Devine arrived to lay claim to the entire estate.

Murphy on Evidence frames the law of evidence in its practical context. Suitable for both undergraduates and BPTC students, the text is supported by a wealth of online resources based around two fictional cases, bringing the law to life, and developing a clear contextual understanding of the law.

Murphy on Evidence frames the law in its practical context. Suitable for both undergraduates and BPTC students, the text is supported by a wealth of online resources based around two fictional cases, bringing the law to life, and developing a clear contextual understanding of the subject.