NZ Justice System

This morning there was an interesting article in the paper...

Barlow 'foolish but not a murderer'
The Dominion Post | Saturday, 19 April 2008

John Barlow is taking the fight to clear his name to the Privy Council and says that though he has done some foolish things, he is not a double murderer.
"I maintain my innocence, as I have always done," he said in an exclusive statement to The Dominion Post.
"I know I did some foolish things and to some it looks suspicious, but I am not a murderer."
Barlow was convicted, after a rare third trial, of the 1994 murders of father and son businessmen Eugene and Gene Thomas in their offices on The Terrace in Wellington.
He was jailed for a minimum of 14 years and is due to be considered for parole for the first time in October. His lawyer Greg King says the focus is still on clearing his name, however.
"John Barlow wants to leave prison an innocent man, not a paroled murderer," Mr King said.
Barlow now has one last chance to clear his name, this time with the Privy Council in London.
"I am very disappointed that the Ministry of Justice refused to refer my case to our own appeal court but we are confident the Privy Council will give us a fair hearing," he said yesterday.
His appeal documents were filed with the Privy Council this week.
The court has rarely agreed to hear criminal cases from New Zealand and Barlow can ask for an appeal only because the Court of Appeal decided his case before the Supreme Court took over as this country's top court.
Last month Governor-General Anand Satyanand refused to refer his case back to the Court of Appeal.
Mr King is confident that if Barlow can clear the first hurdle of persuading the Privy Council to hear his case the convictions will be overturned on a full appeal.
Barlow was convicted after two High Court juries were unable to agree on verdicts. Mr King says the extra evidence at the third trial - which compared the composition of the metal in the bullets that killed the Thomases with bullets Barlow had - came from a United States witness from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The technique the witness used has now been discredited and convictions in the US have been overturned as a result.


I personally have no idea whether Barlow is guilty or not. To me it does not matter. The issue is that he has requested an appeal and the Ministry of Justice has denied him this. Since when have we as a nation agreed to bureaucrats being the gatekeepers to justice. I thought everyone was entitled to appeal. I have no confidence in bureaucrats making these decisions. I have much more confidence in our judges making these decisions.

I guess the argument is that if we had appeals available to anyone who asked for an appeal, the court system might get overloaded with spurious cases. A simple and fair solution to this would be to impose a penalty if the appeal was unsuccessful. Say 20% increase in sentence.

While we are at it, we also need to direct home some responsibility for unfair imprisonment. If this Barlow person is eventually freed, then those who have made decisions like this to deny him an appeal, need to feel it in their pockets... just as he has felt it in having his backside sitting in prison.