The Supreme Court has found O'Shane got the law wrong in 14 out of those 16 criminal cases. In the two cases in which her decisions were upheld, one was a private prosecution that did not involve the police and in the other the defendant was herself a police officer so the police were, in effect, on both sides.No reasonable person could read O'Shane's record without concluding that, had a duck been appointed to the bench in her stead, jurisprudence would have been no worse off. Ah, but there you have it! While ducks do come in black, none have yet been blessed with the preferment that has seen the Indigenous jurist skate unscathed through so many episodes of incompetence and outrage.
In the other 14 cases, the police or Director of Public Prosecutions had brought a case against a private citizen and then appealed when O'Shane dismissed the case. In one case she dismissed a charge even though the accused had entered a plea of guilty.
It is a powerful thing, that indulgence, and even as the Silly chronicles O'Shane's shame the magic shield is still at work. The headline on the Silly's investigation:
"Resignation now could help O'Shane preserve a proud legacy"
Gina Rinehart has been Fairfax's majority shareholder for almost a week. What is she waiting for?
