The Dominion Post
August 7, 2003

Transcript is new evidence
Letter to the Editor
by Dan Dungan, Nelson

Your editorial It's old evidence with a new spin, about the Peter Ellis case (August 5), makes a good case for our legal system, warts and all, but it is not entirely accurate.

I saw no "spin" in Sunday's two-page spread, but rather a straightforward, presumably accurate, transcript of evidence not presented to the original jury. Surely that qualifies it as, in a sense, new evidence.

A royal commission would not just endorse public opinion but would, presumably, look at all the evidence and decide whether a miscarriage of justice had taken place.

Incidentally, why was it a paid advertisement? It was thought newsworthy enough to be bannered on the front page. I do not recall ever seeing a mere advertisement so advertised. I, for one, bought the paper for that one item.