Wednesday, December 19, 2012

(5 of 7). David Bain. N.Z. Publisher's view; Time to take a closer look at content of Justice Binnie's report. Provision of a contaminated DNA sample to a defence expert called "serious misconduct" which had "serious consequences" to Bain's ability to defend himself.


PUBLISHER'S VIEW:  Much of the reporting following the release of Justice Ian Binnie's report recommending compensation for David Bain has focussed on the political implications of the report - as opposed to its content. The content is, however,  of prime interest to this Blog because Justice Binnie details the provision of a contaminated DNA sample to a defence  expert that made it impossible to do his work, with "serious consequences" to David Bain's ability to defend himself. This  "serious misconduct,"  together with the many other disturbing findings made by Justice Binnie, illustrates the crying need for New Zealand to compensate David Bain  - as Justice Binnie recommends - for his lengthy  ordeal.

Harold Levy:  Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.

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CONTEXT: Wikipedia: "Killings and first trial: " By 1994 Robin and Margaret were estranged and Robin was sleeping in the back of his van at Taieri or in the schoolhouse. David Bain and the rest of the family lived at 65 Every Street, Andersons Bay, Dunedin. Robin returned to the family home at the weekends and slept in a caravan in the back garden. Robin was said to be in an incestuous relationship with his daughter Laniet that began when the family were in Papua New Guinea, and was still going on. Fellow teachers later described him as "deeply depressed, to the point of impairing his ability to do his job of teaching children".  On the morning of 20 June 1994, David Bain called 111 at 7:09 am in an apparently distressed state and told the operator: "They're all dead, they're all dead." When the police arrived at Every Street they found five members of the Bain family had been shot – Robin Bain (the father aged 58), his wife Margaret, their daughters Arawa (19), Laniet (18) and son Stephen (14). Four days later, David Bain, then aged 22, was charged with the murder of all five members of his family. On 5 July 1994, the house was burnt down by the New Zealand Fire Service, at the request of the trustees of the Bain family trust. At his trial the prosecution claimed that David killed his entire family after completing his early morning paper round– though no motive or explanation as to why David might want to kill them was provided. The lack of motive confused the presiding judge who in his summing up said the Crown had told the jury "... that these events were so bizarre and abnormal that it was impossible for the human mind to conceive of any logical  or reasonable explanation". One piece of evidence was a message found typed on the family computer that read: "sorry, you are the only one who deserved to stay". The defence used this to put forward the proposition that David’s father, Robin Bain, had killed the others while David was out on his paper run – and then committed suicide. After a three week trial David Bain was convicted by the jury on five counts of murder and sentenced by Justice Williamson to life imprisonment with a 16 year non-parole period.

The entire Wikipedia page can be found at: 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bain

 The provision of a contaminated DNA sample to the defence expert, Dr Arie Geursen.

567. Dr Geursen described having his work rendered useless by ESR’s supply to him of a contaminated DNA sample for testing as an “unspeakable mess”308. Analysis of the “fingerprint blood sample” was of key importance to the defence. ESR rendered it impossible for the defence expert to do his work.

Comment: ESR’s conduct on this occasion, though presumably inadvertent, was seriously prejudiced to David Bain’s fair trial rights. I would describe such negligent conduct by the authorities as misconduct. In this instance it was serious misconduct given the importance of the “bloody fingerprint” controversy and the serious consequences of his error in David Bain’s ability to defend himself.

Justice Binnie's full report can be found through the following link:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10853771

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.