|
|
The |
|
|
|
|
Poneke’s Weblog Former High Court judge Sir Thomas
Thorp has again voiced concerns about the Peter Ellis case, as well as regret
that it seems there is no prospect of the Government setting up the
independent tribunal he called for to look into miscarriages of justice. In the NZ Herald today, Sir Thomas says the material in two Law Journal articles by independent
researcher Ross Francis, canvassed in this blog on December 10, “must add to
concerns expressed previously that that case may have gone awry.” Francis’s articles highlighted the
pivotal role of Justice Ministry official Val Sim (now a law commissioner)
behind the scenes in the Ellis case in preventing a pardon and stopping a
full commission of inquiry. Sir Thomas today identifies the
“turf conscious” Justice Ministry as the reason for lack of action over his
report two years ago urging the creation of an independent tribunal to
investigate miscarriages of justice, similar to England’s Criminal Cases
Review Commission. In that report, which followed a review of cases of
alleged wrongful convictions, Sir Thomas estimated there could be 20 innocent
New Zealanders in jail. A parliamentary select committee
called for such a tribunal to be established and the Government said it would
look at the proposal as part of its “overall strategy of reducing the
incidence of crime.” But Sir Thomas says he has heard
nothing to indicate progress. “I think myself now that my
proposals will not be adopted or progressed by the present Government.” While he understood Peter Ellis
could theoretically appeal to the Privy Council, “an investigation by an
independent specialist authority would in my view be the best means of
obtaining an effective reconsideration of those verdicts.” Last month, Victoria and Otago
university academics staged the Innocence Project conference in Wellington to
bring attention to the dangers of wrongful convictions and to press for
action to set up the tribunal sought by Sir Thomas. At that conference, Otago
psychology professor Harlene Hayne presented dramatic new evidence that
showed the interviews of the Christchurch Civic Creche children, used as
evidence in the 1993 prosecution of Peter Ellis, were worse than those of the
closely similar 1980s case of US daycare worker Kelly Michaels, who was
jailed for abusing children but released after five years, with the New
Jersey Supreme Court declaring that “the interviews of the children were
highly improper and utilised coercive and unduly suggestive methods.” In a 2001 ministerial inquiry
which found Ellis had “failed to prove his innocence” of abusing children at
the Civic, former chief justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum accepted that the Kelly
Michaels interviews were badly flawed but said the Civic ones were of a high
quality. Today’s Herald also has an extended article about the research by Harlene
Hayne and Ross Francis mentioned above, which I hope you read first last
month on this blog. It also quotes the amazing Maryanne Garry of Victoria
University, the main instigator of the Innocence Project. |
