PUBLISHER'S VIEW: "Hasty police rejection of Channel 3 News revelations and the New Zealand government's stubborn justice-be-damned resistance to compensation in fight of Canadian Justice Ian Binnie's unequivocal findings pointing to David Bain's innocence make the need for an independent review commission apparent; The New Zealanders only have to look to South Australia where an independent review board is currently being established due to a disturbing record of miscarriages of justice not remedied by the government, and the efforts of Robert Moles and Bibi Sangha, whose contributions to criminal justice reform in Australia have been featured in numerous posts on this Blog.
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
STORY: "Case for establishing review commission," published by VOXY on June 27, 2013.
GIST: "The latest revelations in the long-running Bain saga suggest it would be worth investigating setting up an agency - similar to the UK criminal cases review commission - to review difficult cases here, Labour’s Justice spokesperson Andrew Little says. TV3’s 3rd Degree programme last night revealed there is evidence Robin Bain, the father of the convicted and later acquitted David Bain, may have loaded the magazine of the rifle used in the killing of five family members in 1995." The on-going controversy over the case - with two juries reaching two different verdicts, a so-called independent inquiry into compensation being overturned by the Minister of Justice and now apparently ‘new’ evidence that has, in fact, been around all the time - calls into question the effectiveness of our judicial system. "In fairness, there are many hundreds of criminal cases each year, some of which will be difficult cases teetering on the brink of genuine reasonable doubt, where the conclusion will be debatable. "Where there is continuing doubt about a verdict even after the appeals process has been exhausted, and a real risk a miscarriage of justice has occurred, then there needs to be a truly independent process to assess all matters."........."It’s easy to pick sides and respond to the emotional buttons that are pushed in these cases, whether by the police or by defendants, but the over-riding objective must be to maintain public confidence that justice is done in every case."" The entire story can be found at: http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/case-establishing-review-commission-little/5/15
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
GIST: "The latest revelations in the long-running Bain saga suggest it would be worth investigating setting up an agency - similar to the UK criminal cases review commission - to review difficult cases here, Labour’s Justice spokesperson Andrew Little says. TV3’s 3rd Degree programme last night revealed there is evidence Robin Bain, the father of the convicted and later acquitted David Bain, may have loaded the magazine of the rifle used in the killing of five family members in 1995." The on-going controversy over the case - with two juries reaching two different verdicts, a so-called independent inquiry into compensation being overturned by the Minister of Justice and now apparently ‘new’ evidence that has, in fact, been around all the time - calls into question the effectiveness of our judicial system. "In fairness, there are many hundreds of criminal cases each year, some of which will be difficult cases teetering on the brink of genuine reasonable doubt, where the conclusion will be debatable. "Where there is continuing doubt about a verdict even after the appeals process has been exhausted, and a real risk a miscarriage of justice has occurred, then there needs to be a truly independent process to assess all matters."........."It’s easy to pick sides and respond to the emotional buttons that are pushed in these cases, whether by the police or by defendants, but the over-riding objective must be to maintain public confidence that justice is done in every case."" The entire story can be found at: http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/case-establishing-review-commission-little/5/15
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear reader: Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following developments relating to this case;
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/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
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.
