Imprisonment of Australia's Indigenous Offenders: Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37; Munda v Western Australia [2013] HCA 38

Abstract

Twenty-seven per cent of Australia's imprisoned population is of an Indigenous background, although only 2.5% of its population is of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island descent. In Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37 and Munda v Western Australia [2013] HCA 38, the Australian High Court addressed the proposition that the Indigenous background of criminal offenders should itself constitute a mitigating factor for the sentencing judge. It rejected this proposition, distinguishing Canadian law on the subject, and emphatically determining that each case must be determined on an individual basis, to evaluate whether the violent and deprived background of an offender, whether or not Indigenous, shoul..