Jonathan Edward Dick appeared in court on September 1, 2020, before this Court, and pleaded not guilty to the three offences included in the filed indictment. These accusations included his brother David Andrew Dick's murder on 3 February 2017, David Cammarata's attempted murder witnessed by Daniel Williams on 23 August 2018, and David Cammarata's stalking between 29 July and 19 August 2019. The accused entered a not-guilty plea to those three accusations solely on the grounds that he was mentally ill at the time of the alleged offences, which prevented him from understanding that his actions were improper. This case was heard in the supreme court as it was murder, which is severe enough to be held in the supreme court. The main offence the …show more content…
Depending on the circumstances of the murder, this penalty can vary and some offenders can be let off with lighter sentences than others. Due to the offence being more major and there would likely be a jury present while this case was heard who would end up making the final decision determining the punishment for the crimes committed.
Due to this case being a criminal matter, the burden of proof would be the responsibility of the prosecution. The burden of proof rests squarely on the prosecution to establish each element of an offence that bears the defendant's guilt. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the standard of proof needed by the prosecution, both when the elements of an offence must be established and when the prosecution is required to disprove defences or exceptions to culpability. It would need to be proven that Jonathan had the intent to commit the crime (mens rea), meaning that at the time of the murder, he was aware that what he was doing was wrong. This would be hard for the defence to prove as Jonathan pleaded not guilty due to a mental impairment. The defence would have to find a way to prove that he did in fact know what he was doing when he murdered his brother, attempted to murder
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The idea that anyone could kill another person, let alone their own brother is horrifying and this family had to witness it. The close family would suffer irreversible damage and worry about how they couldn't help Jonathan and lost their family member David. Catalysed fear will be spread in the greater community, as people will no longer feel safe in their homes and in shopping centres where the murder occurred. Any people who witnessed any of these events firsthand would have been very traumatised and might need some type of treatment going forward to help them cope and understand what they just saw. For David Cammarato, the impact of Jonathan's actions would be even more severe. He would need lots of support and reassurance from the people around him that he is safe in his own home. His children were also present at the time of the attack and would have been severely disturbed and upset by the events caused by the