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The
Christchurch Civic Creche Case |
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Auckland: As many as 20
people may be wrongly in New Zealand’s jails, says the retired High Court
judge who looked into the Peter Ellis Christchurch creche case for the
Government. Sir Thomas Thorp is
calling for an independent authority to be set up to identify miscarriages of
justice. His recommendation
follows a two-year study of the nature and incidence of miscarriages of justice,
and the way New Zealand and comparable countries deal with such claims. Sir Thomas, whose
interest in the topic arose from reviews he did for the Government, including
work on the Ellis case, said that based on British experience, up to a score
of New Zealand prison inmates could be wrongly imprisoned. His study led him to
conclude that the frequency of miscarriages of justice was underestimated. According to published
reports of inquiries Sir Thomas has carried out for the Government, he concluded
Dunedin man David Bain’s conviction for the murders of his parents and
siblings was safe, but he had misgivings about Peter Ellis’ conviction. Sir Thomas’ research
includes analysis of 53 applications to the Justice Ministry claiming
miscarriages of justice from 1995 to 2002. Of these, he classified 26% as
raising issues that clearly required careful investigation. Sixteen percent were
plainly without merit, while 58% had sufficient potential to require some
further investigation. In August, Parliament’s
Justice and Electoral Committee also recommended a body to look into
miscarriages of justice. Sir Thomas’ report,
Miscarriages of Justice, has been published by the Legal Research Foundation,
a non-profit body associated with Auckland University’s law faculty. Although it was
impossible to make reliable estimates of the number of miscarriages of
justice, Sir Thomas said he found nothing to indicate the rate in New Zealand
would be significantly different than in Britain. His estimate that there may
be 20 people wrongly imprisoned was based on the experience there. There were
proportionally fewer complaints of miscarriages in New Zealand, something Sir
Thomas believed was explained by New Zealand’s system being reactive, whereas
all people convicted of crimes in Britain were made aware of the independent
review process available there. As well, Maori and
Pacific Islanders used the existing processes much less often than pakeha.
Sir Thomas told the Weekend Herald the reason for Maori and Pacific
Islanders’ low use of the current system may be that they feel most strongly
that they are not understood by the justice system. I think that there is
in our racial difficulty a sense that people are not understood, which is
complex and not open to simple resolution. But, surely, changing from the
present self-generating system, which requires complainants to hold their
hand up and come up with a written petition or claim, to a system which
actually goes out to make sure that all convicted people are aware there is
this authority and it will help them formulate a claim if need be, that
should make some difference. In his report, Sir
Thomas says a fully independent and appropriately staffed and resourced
authority should have the task of identifying miscarriages and putting them
forward for reconsideration by courts. This should include investigative
capability. The authority should
seek means to reduce the ethnic imbalance of claimants, identify causes of
miscarriages in New Zealand, recommend means of minimising their occurrence,
and assess compensation for wrongful convictions. National’s justice
spokesman Richard Worth said he was in favour of an independent commission.
The Ellis case was a good example of the labyrinth parties could get caught
up in as they tried to prove a miscarriage of justice. Criminal Bar
Association president Peter Winter said an independent body was necessary. There has been a
climate of setting up institutions that prosecute including the Serious Fraud
Office and greater authority for serious crime provisions. It is time there
is a counter-balance to redress those who are wrongly convicted. A spokesman for
Attorney general David Parker said last night the minister intended to read
the report. |
