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The
Christchurch Civic Creche Case |
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Retired Judge Sir
Thomas Thorp has called for an independent authority to be set up to identify
miscarriages of justice. I concur that this
would be an excellent move. I find it interesting
that Sir Thomas has concluded David Bain's conviction for the murder of his
parents and siblings was safe but that he had misgivings about Peter Ellis'
conviction. That is very much my views also. January 21 2006;
08:57 Justice Thorp inquired
into both the Bain and Ellis cases and actually looked at the evidence. His
reports were suppressed as they didn't reflect the Justice Ministry viewpoint
but Rosemary McLeod got hold of his Bain case one and published it in North &
South and I got hold of his Ellis one and published it in The Dominion. Quite a few High Court
judges have grave misgivings about the Ellis case, some of them saying it was
a crock of shit. But the system isn't self-correcting. The Court of Appeal
after the second Ellis appeal invited Phil Goff to have a commission of
inquiry, but he was nobbled by the Justice Ministry and only ordered that
extraordinarily narrow Eichelbaum whitewash which ignored the
"evidence" and delivered what the ministry wanted. In the Ellis case there
was no evidence at all of any kind, as the whole thing was a fantasy. In the
Bain case, the solid forensic evidence was all over the house, on Bain, on
walls and floors, under the fingernails of his siblings, on the gun, all in
the blood of his victims. There is no doubt whatsoever of Bain's guilt. My worry is
"justice by opinion poll." The misguided but ferocious campaign by
Joe Karam has convinced many people that Bain is innocent, while a decade of
revelations about the fatal flaws in the Ellis case have convinced many
people Ellis is innocent. Opinion polls show many or most people believe both
are innocent. I do not believe in justice by opinion poll based on campaigns
run by proponents for one side or another... I would rather the courts got it
right in the first place. They do in almost all cases but not with Ellis. There may be a need for
an independent authority such as Justice Thorp suggests for these rare cases,
but I would not like to see it become just another avenue of appeal, another
part of the system to be used by legally aided lawyers and misguided
advocates for people who are as guilty as hell. |
