Tainted Trial of Farah Jama, The

How did a young Somali man end up in jail for the rape of a woman he had never met, in an over-28s nightclub he was too young to be admitted to, in a Melbourne suburb he had never visited?

In 2009, nearly eighteen months after Jama’s incarceration, his conviction was overturned when a mother’s profound faith in her son’s innocence, a defence lawyer’s belief in his client and a prosecutor’s tenacious pursuit of truth and justice brought forth revelations that overturned a shocking miscarriage of justice.

Written by journalist and former lawyer Julie Szego, The Tainted Trial of Farah Jama is an intriguing and confronting story about injustice, the heartache of migration and the trials of integration, cultural taboos, prejudice and gender politics.

Testimonials
Unputdownable. A shocking true-life story that reads like a nightmare dreamt up by Kafka; a complex, cautionary tale that should be required reading for all law students, forensic scientists and police cadets. – Peter Goldsworthy AM, award-winning writer and poet

A brilliant chronicle that tells us simple justice is rarely simple – and takes the shine off the smugness of forensic evidence, like DNA-testing. – Professor Colin Tatz AO

A fascinating account of what can go wrong if the presumption of innocence is just a catch-cry. This book shows how dangerous it is when DNA evidence is allowed to trump common sense. I did not know of this trial until I read the book: I could not wait to find out how it went so wrong. The DNA evidence made no sense; the verdict seemed irrational. The result was a terrible injustice. To everyone. – Julian Burnside AO QC, barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author

High-quality journalism may have fallen away in our newspapers, but Julie Szego demonstrates its enduring vitality in this story of a grievous injustice redressed. She reveals in painstaking detail not only the various factors that, together, resulted in Farah Jama’s conviction for rape, but also the complexity of his Somali culture striving to assert itself on Australia’s multicultural stage. This is a book that deserves a very long shelf-life. – Robert Hillman, award-wining biographer and fiction writer.