In steamy Darwin a historical murder trial is getting underway. Police officer Zachary Rolfe stands accused of murdering Warlpiri teen Kumanjayi Walker in the remote community of Yuendumu in 2019. It’s the first time a police officer will be tried for murder for an First Nations death in custody case in the NT since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
After years of delays due to the pandemic and an urgent High Court appeal, a jury will finally be empanelled on Monday. Then the silks for the prosecution and defence will each outline what they say happened on that Saturday evening when Rolfe shot the young man three times after attempting to arrest him.
There’ll be a close focus on the composition of the jury, after a jury without an Indigenous member took just three hours last year to acquit a Western Australian police officer who shot dead an Aboriginal woman in Geraldton. We’ll also get a sense of Rolfe’s defence and why the prosecution says he intended to kill.
I’m on the scene at the NT Supreme Court in Darwin and will be bringing you coverage of the trial starting this afternoon. Listen live from around 5.30pm AEST via Crikey‘s Twitter account — here’s the link to the space where we’ll be broadcasting — or catch up on our website later this evening.
