I have waited a few days to post this as I wanted to see what follow-up comments, if any, were to come.
Many of you may have already heard about the sentencing of the Christchurch mosque shooter. I saw it reported on U.S. news media, but there is more to what happened.
Sentencing began on Monday with the reading of 90 victim impact statements, mostly by the victims themselves. The High Court Justice who presided over the sentencing allowed some unusual things to take place. Victim Impact reports are usually fairly constrained, but not in this case.
Some time beforehand the shooter had fired his lawyers, intending to speak for himself at sentencing. There were expectations that he would use the opportunity to expand on his "manifesto" and the court had stated there would be some blanket suppression orders in place to prevent any such comments being publicly reported . In the end, on Wednesday afternoon in chambers, he informed the judge and prosecutor that he would not speak, instead the court appointed lawyer to assist him would speak on his behalf.
On Wednesday and Thursday morning there was some comment on talkback radio that NZ should have reintroduced the death penalty just for this one offender. Clearly public reactions were extreme.
On Thursday morning both prosecution and defence had approximately 30 minutes to make oral sentencing submissions. At stake was the sentence of life without parole. This is a sentence that was only introduced into NZ law in 2010. Before that there was preventitive detention for the worst offenders on second conviction, mostly used for sexual offending. Life with 10 year minimum non-parole periods is usual for killers with non-parole extentions in agravating cases. That does not mean that you automatically qualify for parole after 10 years. Some killers do not get the chance of parole for up to twice that long.
NZ case law gives around 17 years non-parole periods for the average "aggravating factors" and the longest non-parole period imposed is 33 years.
Since 2010 two killers have faced the prospect of life without parole, but the judges have stepped back from imposing the sentence at the last minute.
Guilty pleas, no matter how late in the process, are usually a matter that requires a sentence "discount". There was some pubic discussion how that would effenc sentencing in this case. In the end the judges summation and sentencing were relatively brief compared to the "ordinary" murder sentencing process. Life without parole was to be imposed.
Immediately there was some discussion about returning the killer to Australia, his homeland, for the sentence to be completed, but while one politician (his party is facing not being returned to parliament in next month's elections) publicy advocated for this there is no mechanism in NZ law to allow for it (Although Australia also has life without parole sentencing, particularly in the State of Victoria).
Since sentencing and the imediate (within an hour) return of the shooter to our most secure prison, there have been a lot of media stories about the reaction from politicians to what the killer willl face for the rest of his life (23 hour lockup in a secure wing with no other prisoners and no direct sunlight depending on when he gets his exersise).
There is a real possibilty that he will be targeted, probably for death, by other prisoners, and law "experts" are already claiming that this will contravene UN prohibitions and rights. In particulr there is the right to rehabilitaion and "hope" for the future. But, these experts concede, this a unique to NZ situation.
There will inevitably be a sentencing appeal, which will be when we next hear from this killer. Hopefully after that the next mention of him will be his ultimate demise behind walls, whenever that will be.
One thing I do note, when first arrested it was reported that he had said he was willing to do 17 years of a life sentence before parole as he would have become so famous and would be well known in his release. I guess he had never ehard of life without parole.
So with luck this will be (almost) the end of this sorry and sad piece of NZ history.
Many of you may have already heard about the sentencing of the Christchurch mosque shooter. I saw it reported on U.S. news media, but there is more to what happened.
Sentencing began on Monday with the reading of 90 victim impact statements, mostly by the victims themselves. The High Court Justice who presided over the sentencing allowed some unusual things to take place. Victim Impact reports are usually fairly constrained, but not in this case.
Some time beforehand the shooter had fired his lawyers, intending to speak for himself at sentencing. There were expectations that he would use the opportunity to expand on his "manifesto" and the court had stated there would be some blanket suppression orders in place to prevent any such comments being publicly reported . In the end, on Wednesday afternoon in chambers, he informed the judge and prosecutor that he would not speak, instead the court appointed lawyer to assist him would speak on his behalf.
On Wednesday and Thursday morning there was some comment on talkback radio that NZ should have reintroduced the death penalty just for this one offender. Clearly public reactions were extreme.
On Thursday morning both prosecution and defence had approximately 30 minutes to make oral sentencing submissions. At stake was the sentence of life without parole. This is a sentence that was only introduced into NZ law in 2010. Before that there was preventitive detention for the worst offenders on second conviction, mostly used for sexual offending. Life with 10 year minimum non-parole periods is usual for killers with non-parole extentions in agravating cases. That does not mean that you automatically qualify for parole after 10 years. Some killers do not get the chance of parole for up to twice that long.
NZ case law gives around 17 years non-parole periods for the average "aggravating factors" and the longest non-parole period imposed is 33 years.
Since 2010 two killers have faced the prospect of life without parole, but the judges have stepped back from imposing the sentence at the last minute.
Guilty pleas, no matter how late in the process, are usually a matter that requires a sentence "discount". There was some pubic discussion how that would effenc sentencing in this case. In the end the judges summation and sentencing were relatively brief compared to the "ordinary" murder sentencing process. Life without parole was to be imposed.
Immediately there was some discussion about returning the killer to Australia, his homeland, for the sentence to be completed, but while one politician (his party is facing not being returned to parliament in next month's elections) publicy advocated for this there is no mechanism in NZ law to allow for it (Although Australia also has life without parole sentencing, particularly in the State of Victoria).
Since sentencing and the imediate (within an hour) return of the shooter to our most secure prison, there have been a lot of media stories about the reaction from politicians to what the killer willl face for the rest of his life (23 hour lockup in a secure wing with no other prisoners and no direct sunlight depending on when he gets his exersise).
There is a real possibilty that he will be targeted, probably for death, by other prisoners, and law "experts" are already claiming that this will contravene UN prohibitions and rights. In particulr there is the right to rehabilitaion and "hope" for the future. But, these experts concede, this a unique to NZ situation.
There will inevitably be a sentencing appeal, which will be when we next hear from this killer. Hopefully after that the next mention of him will be his ultimate demise behind walls, whenever that will be.
One thing I do note, when first arrested it was reported that he had said he was willing to do 17 years of a life sentence before parole as he would have become so famous and would be well known in his release. I guess he had never ehard of life without parole.
So with luck this will be (almost) the end of this sorry and sad piece of NZ history.
