Contempt of Court
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Wednesday, March 25th, 2009A Florida drugs trial had to be abandoned this month because no fewer than nine of the jurors had been conducting their own research online, despite a warning from the judge not to. In NZ Judge David Harvey has been warning about this for ages. Is anyone listening? It’s becoming clear that we can’t rely […]
Another Bain beat-up
Monday, March 2nd, 2009I think the SST overplayed its lead story on the Bain jury. The headline: David Bain murder retrial: Jurors must be tested for bias – expert The first two paras: A TOP law professor has called for tougher testing of jurors to minimise the risk of prejudice in the retrial of David Bain on five murder charges. […]
Misjudged
Thursday, December 18th, 2008Two of our top judges recently denied a Fairfax journalist permission to speak to jurors about the strengths and weaknesses of the jury system, even though the journalist promised not to identify the jurors or the defendants or discuss the particulars of the cases. The judges cited Solicitor-General v Radio NZ, and said the request “lacks […]
Siemer in Wonderland 2
Sunday, December 7th, 2008Those dastardly Court of Appeal judges, O’Regan and Arnold JJ, having brazenly refused to recuse themselves from Siemer’s case, cunningly affected to hide their biases by asking questions of counsel that rather suggested some sympathy with Siemer’s right-to-jury argument… The real news flash from the hearing was that the Crown explicitly conceded that contempt defendants […]
Siemer in Wonderland
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008Vince Siemer is presenting his case, by videolink from Auckland, to the Court of Appeal. He has told the judges that he has “considerable respect for the institution” of the courts. This submission is somewhat compromised, it’s fair to say, by the fact that he is dressed up as Alice in Wonderland, complete with blue frock, white apron […]
Siemer strikes out again
Thursday, November 20th, 2008The Supreme Court has refused leave to Vincent Siemer over a range of complaints he had with procedural rulings in the defamation case brought against him by Michael Stiassny. As part of the decision, the court ruled that Stiassny’s reference to Court of Appeal judge Grant Hammond as “our old mate” was not evidence of […]
NSW moves to stop judgments prejudicing trials
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008New South Wales is taking steps to take judgments offline where they might affect a jury because they contain prejudicial details. One of the parties has to make an application though. (Hat tip: Ursula Cheer).
CA to rule on right to jury in contempt cases
Monday, November 3rd, 2008The Bill of Rights Act says we have the right to a trial by jury if the penalty for an offence exceeds 3 months jail. The maximum penalty for contempt is indefinite imprisonment. Recently, Vince Siemer was sentenced to 6 months in jail. He asked for a jury trial. It was denied. Why? The Courts […]
Overcharged?
Monday, November 3rd, 2008It was always possible that further charges were to be laid against some of the Urewera defendants, and here they are: participation in an organised criminal group. Must say, though, I feel some disquiet about the adding of these broad-based charges (as opposed to the more specific Arms Act ones) after the High Court has […]
Staying power?
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008I’ve said that the failure of the Fairfax contempt prosecution is a blow for the arms charge defendants’ chances of getting a stay of prosecution due to prejudicial publicity. If the case had succeeded, it would have been difficult for the presecutors and the courts to proceed with prosecutions. After all, two High Court judges […]
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