Corrections and the Parole Board Crisis in New Zealand
As the majority of posts here, have been about the Scott Watson case it's a good place to start but certainly does not overlook a raft of other cases of wrongful convictions including 2 other current ones, that of DavidTamihere, and Mark Lundy. As it happens 2 involved double murders, and the third, Scott's, an alleged double murder, where unlike the former two, bodies were not discovered. But this is not to forget the explosiveness of the Gail Maney case that leaves all but one of the alleged participants discharged by the Court, with only 1, Stephen Stone, remaining convicted despite all his alleged accomplices or parties to the crimes for which he was convicted declared innocent - the vagaries of our Laws and Court decisions.
Briefly, in Tamihere it was said that he killed Urban Hoglen and Heidi Paakkonen and disposed of the 2 bodies at sea according to a Crown witness. Later one body was found buried with a watch still attached. The "same" watch had been found in the room of David's son and was presented at trial as being given to the son after having been taken from the body of Urban. Since the trial, a now-deceased, "witness" was found guilty of perjury in the case by way of a private prosecution. That conviction shredded the credibility of the entire case but an appeal was rejected in the Court of Appeal, it now heads off to the Supreme Court. The deceased witness was Bob Harris revealed as a lifetime informer who killed a young couple and later described it as like eating an ice cream and is indicative of another factor, certain police continued to frame people in difficult cases, using whatever method possible. For example, Teina Pora having been convicted of killing Susan Burdett from evidence by a person called Malcolm Rewa who was later found guilty of the crime himself when acting as a lone rapist. Police stalled the hunt for Rewa so that it looked like Pora was the alleged "South Auckland Rapist." Meanwhile, Rewa continued his crime spree.
The enormity of the effort to convict Mark Lundy is probably unparalleled anywhere in the world. However, it does have a viable suspect which to my knowledge was never investigated. Mark spent some 2 years or so on bail after winning a retrial at the Privy Council before being found guilty again on particularly weak and dicey MRNA evidence. Now he is much like Scott caught within a Justice System and a Parole Board (PB), that has no defined manner within which to treat prisoners who take the rare stand of claiming innocence. Doing so, can, and does create far longer imprisonment. With close scrutiny, the case readily falls apart but is an enormous file that takes much work and patience to simplify into a Miscarriage of Justice.
Returning to the Watson convictions key evidence was destroyed by police and Crown Law that has not been translated in any viable way, either by Corrections all the PB. Both those parties, may not have fully understood or accepted that a key event that described the alleged death of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope is destroyed. The couple had to be on Scott's boat to have been killed by him there, but there is no evidence they were ever there but strong evidence they were not.
I'll list the things from memory:
1/ Alleged confessions made by Scott to 2 prison stoolies - since rejected by Sir Graham Panckhurst (SG) when finding in favour of Scott's second Royal Prerogative of Mercy Application (RPOM.a)
2/ Scratches to the inner hatch of the Watson boat the Blade, said to have arrived there when the couple tried to escape by opening the hatch, the lock for it was inside the cabin and only able to be locked from the inside. The scratches were rejected y SG as having been made by the couple.
3/ The couple being killed or restrained while the Blade was rafted to 2 other boats with people on board, some of who Scott asked to continue to party on that New Years. One must ask where the couple were going to go as Scott brazenly made a move to party with one of the women in the raft up.
4/ The "2 trip theory" which was also never proven, needed Scott to go back ashore without anyway of being able to do so, also requiring him to be unseen before returning with the couple who remained silently in the cabin despite it being unable to be locked from the outside. The couple could have simply gone to another boat in the raft up to raise the alarm even by rocking or kicking the hull with Scott locked out.
5/ The alleged cleaning of the Blade which left fish blood, while an alleged wipe down for fingerprints left many intact, along with their being an explanation for CD tapes to be free of fingerprints after earlier being wiped down after a severe storm in Cook Strait.
6/ 2 hairs said to be Olivia's alleged to have been found on the Blade but never photographed their in situ in the manner potential critical evidence always is in a homicide. The 2 hairs are no longer likely to have been even if not found in "extra" searches of the Hope household.
7/ A scientist for the Crown's evidence supporting the defence regarding the 2 hairs said to hold the case together.
8/ The argument there was no 2 masted ketch in the bay where Scott was moored and people being pressured to say it wasn't there or ignored and discredited if they wouldn't.
9/ Police threats to people who insisted they saw the ketch.
10/ Evidence showing the entire file was "cleansed" of evidence showing Scott's innocence such as sightings, and photos taken from the file.
11/ Bribes given to witnesses and threats made against others to forget what they had seen that night, or in the following days and months.
Most reasonable people would see the problems with the Watson convictions on the above points alone and there are 100s more. It is what was "alleged" to have happened aboard the Blade that holds Scott in custody and stops his parole so far. So the question is why isn't there a safe method to deal with parole for people in Scott's situation? And indeed that of Mark Lundy who is said to be a model prisoner and whose case is at the CCRC. One might suspect that it is because the Department of Corrections and Parole Board are bonding to link with the police, but that, while doubtful, is happening inadvertently.
But more so, why isn't there a plan, legislated if necessary to prevent people who claim innocence with good cause and support they are innocent. It's bad enough being in prison for a crime you are shown not to have committed without being punished for that reminds of the days where innocent people may have been tortured to death if they could withstand the torture only to die by torture if they denied it. I cite that from the middleages, witch burning, and so forth. Yet it's hard to see any difference now because it is torture for the wrongfully convicted made worse for not admitting it. New Zealand and the world can do better on this though I'm sure some Justice systems are sophisticated enough to have dealt with this problem of not saying you're guilty when you're not and spend extra years in prison for not co-operating in your own false imprisonment.
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