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The
Christchurch Civic Creche Case |
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Up to 20 people may be
wrongly imprisoned in New Zealand, says the retired High Court judge who
looked into the Peter Ellis Christchurch creche case for the Government. Sir Thomas Thorp has
called for an independent authority to be set up to identify miscarriages of
justice. The 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, an Auckland newspaper reported today. Sir Thomas said
"up to a score" of New Zealand inmates may be wrongly jailed. Analysis of 53
applications to the Justice Ministry claimed miscarriages of justice from
1995 to 2002, he revealed. Of these, he
classified: ·
26 per cent as "raising issues that clearly required
careful investigation" ·
16 per cent were "plainly without merit" ·
58 per cent had "sufficient potential to require some
further investigation". Sir Thomas' report,
titled Miscarriages of Justice, has been published by the Legal Research
Foundation, a non-profit body associated with Auckland University's law
faculty. In August Parliament's
Justice and Electoral Committee also recommended the establishment of a body
to look into miscarriages of justice. Sir Thomas believed
there were proportionally fewer complaints of miscarriages in New Zealand
than in Britain. Maori and Pacific
Islanders used the existing review processes much less than Pakeha – prehaps
because they felt strongly they would not be understood by the system. His report 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. 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. |
