scotkaz
Joined: 28 Aug 2008
Posts: 526
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 Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 3:35 am Post subject: New Zealand miscarriage of justice man freed Privy Council |
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A New Zealand man who served almost 13 years in prison for murdering his family has been cleared after a retrial that was only secured by an appeal to the Privy Council.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/w...arriage-of-justice-man-freed.html
David Bain, 37, was overcome with emotion after a jury on Friday cleared him of the killings of his parents, two sisters and a brother at their home in the southern city of Dunedin in June 1994.
The retrial was ordered after the Privy Council ruled that there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice.
The latest trial has lasted more than three months and included evidence from 184 witnesses -- some of them forensic experts flown from Britain -- as well as written statements, hundreds of police photographs, and graphic video footage taken at the scene.
Mr Bain was originally jailed in 1995 but he has consistently maintained his innocence and was released from prison in 2007 pending the retrial.
The defence case centred on the argument that his father Robin had shot dead the other family members then turned the rifle on himself while Mr Bain was out on his morning paper round.
They maintained that the father had been having an incestuous affair with his daughter Laniet, and that he killed the family when it emerged that she was planning to reveal their secret.
As remarkable as the long-running saga itself has been the support Mr Bain won from Joe Karam, a former All Black rugby player, who became convinced of his innocence after reading about the case.
Mr Karam has been the indefatigible driving force behind a series of attempts to get the original verdict overturned, has spent uncounted hours meticulously researching the evidence and writing books books on the subject, and has bankrolled the defence to the tune of millions of pounds of his own money.
A tearful Mr Bain said outside the court in Christchurch after Friday's verdicts: "All I can say is that without Joe and his solid strength, without the love of the people that have supported me since day one, I wouldn't have made it through this far."
Mr Karam said: "We were forced to embark upon what no doubt will go down as the criminal trial of New Zealand's history.
"What has really mattered -- what has really mattered -- is that the truth, as I said 13 years ago, has finally fallen where it has always been."
The jury in the retrial had been instructed by the judge to return only unanimous verdicts, which took just six hours of deliberation.
Lawyers say Mr Bain will have a tougher battle on his hands if he is to seek compensation for his imprisonment, since the burden will be on him to prove his innocence as opposed to the prosecution being required to prove his guilt in the criminal trials.
Although New Zealand has since replaced the right of appeal to the Privy Council with a home-grown Supreme Court, Mr Bain was allowed to take his case to the Law Lords because his conviction occurred before the constitutional change was introduced.
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