Calls to repeal ‘no body, no parole’ laws in NSW

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An alliance of lawyers is calling on the New South Wales government to repeal 'no body, no parole" laws, claiming it only gives victims' families false hope.

Transcript

00:00The lawyers are arguing that these laws are ineffective and that they put the wrongfully

00:05convicted at risk by making it even harder for them to get out of jail.

00:10Now the ABC has spoken to a lawyer on criminality and justice who said that, who's conducted

00:17research in Queensland and this research found that none of the cases that the parole board

00:22reported had actually resulted in the discovery of any bodies.

00:26Now the NSW government has rebutted this point.

00:28They say that the law requires offenders to cooperate with authorities to try and locate

00:34bodies and that even if no body is found, the offenders could still be eligible for

00:39parole if it's deemed that they cooperated in a manner that was satisfactory.

00:44Now despite this, the lawyers say there are still concerns around the impact that this

00:48law has on families of victims, especially by giving them either false hope as well.

00:54So more than 100 people have signed this letter to the NSW government to overturn these

01:01laws and they include two high profile, wrongly convicted people.

01:05That's Kathleen Folbig and Lindy Chamberlain.

01:08All of this debate comes just days after Chris Dawson lost his appeal to overturn his murder

01:14conviction after he was found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette Sims more than 40 years ago.

01:20Lynette's body was never found and her family says that laws like this one have supported

01:25them with their grieving process and have also proved to be impactful.

01:30Now there's been many conversations had around this law as of late but it doesn't look like

01:35the NSW government will be overturning it any time soon.

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