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The Dominion Post
November 13, 2003
Evidence not always the key
Letter to
the Editor
by L Parker, Palmerston North
Since the pardon of Arthur Allan Thomas, there have been but two high-profile
criminal verdicts that have left me uneasy: Peter Ellis is one; the other,
Scott Watson.
The television programme, Murder on the Blade? -- although clearly an
outsider's production -- seemed to me to be thorough and sincere. TVNZ should
be commended for broadcasting it in prime time. Perhaps the unusual number of
eminent local actors prepared to perform bit-parts helped swing it.
The next day, the police intoned their now-familiar "no new
evidence" rebuttal. But, as with the Ellis case, new evidence is not
always the issue. Juries can get it wrong, especially in high-pressure
trials, when worn down by an extraordinary three-month barrage of detail and
character assassination of the defendant.
Toss in a jailhouse confession and any prosecutor could grab a win.
The system might usually get it right, but loyalty to institutional power,
after the fact, can be suffocating.
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