PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Tamihere's lawyer James Carruthers said the Crown's case and the evidentiary landscape had shifted greatly since it was putt to the jury in 1990. He urged the court to be cautious in its consideration of whether to dismiss the appeal. "No doubt the court, if it reaches that stage, it will remind itself of the real risk well established of wrongful convictions arising out of identification evidence and prisoner informant evidence."
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STORY: "Swedish toursts' murders: Court of Appeal reserves decision over David Tamihere's conviction," by Reporter Jemima Huston, published by Radio New Zealand, on November 29, 2023.
GIST: "The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision in the second appeal of David Tamihere's double murder case.
Tamihere was convicted of the murders of Swedish backpackers Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen in 1990 and served 20 years.
An appeal was made in 1992 over contested evidence, but the Court of Appeal rejected it.
In 2020 the former governor-general declared a royal prerogative of mercy, which triggered the new appeal hearing.
On Wednesday, the second day of the hearing, the Crown maintained the evidence against Tamihere was still solid despite false testimony being a key part of its original case.
That evidence was given by inmate Roberto Conchie Harris - who said Tamihere had confessed to the murders - but was later found to have lied.
Crown lawyer Rebecca Thomson argued the evidence was not given great weight by the jury in the 1990 trial because the judge made it clear the testimony was unreliable.
"We do have the judge's summing up, recording second hand its excoriating conclusion on Mr Harris' account as a complete fabrication. Everything either being taken from newspaper stories or it was so bizarre as to be unbelievable."
Thomson said the other circumstantial evidence, such as Tamihere being seen with a woman who looked like Heidi Paakkonen, held up.
She said putting Harris' evidence before the jury would not have affected the overall outcome.
"If one slender strand of the rope is eliminated, that doesn't weaken the whole rope beyond repair. The Crown submits that the Harris evidence was that type of a slender strand; when you remove it the force of the Crown case remains."
But Justice Miller - one of a panel of three judges - told the Crown lawyer the court will not speculate about what the jury might have done, particularly considering it was divided during deliberations.
"So if we are not willing to accept your submission that the jury can't have attached much weight to it, then we are in miscarriage territory at that stage are we not"?
Thomson said even if the court decided the perjured evidence led to a miscarriage of justice, that evidence was simply an irregularity at the trial.
"Only Mr Tamihere knows how and why and where he killed Heidi Paakkonen and Urban Höglin, but only he can be the killer."
Tamihere's lawyer James Carruthers said the Crown's case and the evidentiary landscape had shifted greatly since it was putt to the jury in 1990.
He urged the court to be cautious in its consideration of whether to dismiss the appeal.
"No doubt the court, if it reaches that stage, it will remind itself of the real risk well established of wrongful convictions arising out of identification evidence and prisoner informant evidence."
The court has reserved its decision.
Justice French said she could not give an accurate timeframe except that the judgement will not be released until the new year - at least February.
"Obviously we want to get this right and we need time to do that."
RNZ understands the likely options for the court are that the original verdict is upheld, there is a retrial, or Tamihere could be acquitted.""
The entire story can be read at;
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-123488014
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