A leading Auckland barrister is supporting calls for a special legal commission to be set up in New Zealand to investigate allegations of miscarriages of justice.
A leading Auckland barrister is supporting calls for a special legal commission to be set up in New Zealand to investigate allegations of miscarriages of justice.
Some sections of the legal sector are making a new push for such an organisation, after the Privy Council quashed murder convictions against Mark Lundy for the deaths of his wife and daughter in Palmerston North 13 years ago.
Barrister Simon Mount said New Zealand could emulate Scotland with its Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is fully independent of the Crown and can make its own inquiries.
He said legitimate questions remained about some convictions after the standard criminal process has ended, and an independent commission is the best way to investigate these.
Mr Mount said the Scottish system had performed well in looking into controversial cases quite swiftly and at a relatively modest cost.
Mr Lundy was convicted of murdering his wife and daughter in Palmerston North 13 years ago but the conviction has been quashed by the Privy Council, which says there should be a retrial in the High Court.
Some lawyers have said that Criminal Cases Review Commission had handeled close to 17,000 applications since its inception in 1997.
In 350 of those cases, convictions had been quashed.
David Bain's lawyer, Michael Reed QC, says such commissions are particularly useful at weeding out cases before they end up in appeals courts.
He is one of many lawyers supporting the establishment of such an organisation.
"The commission is more suited to sorting out miscarriages in the earlier stages rather than an appeal court which isn't as well suited to deal with new evidence and problems of cases that have gone wrong.
"Historically that's been shown to be the case, so a commission I think is a very good way forward."
Rex Haig, who had his murder conviction quashed, supports the creation of such an organisation, as does the Law Society.
The Justice Minister, Judith Collins, says New Zealand has a robust appeal process and setting up any new independent body would not extinguish public debate.
