« The case against the case against Robin Bain | Main | Illegal shepherding »
The case against Michael Reed
By Steven | July 9, 2010
Michael Reed QC, Morning Report on Wednesday:
The jury were completely convinced that David hadn’t done it.
This betrays either a gob-smacking ignorance of fundamental principles of criminal law, or an intention to mislead the public about the significance of a not-guilty verdict.
Fortunately, one of the Bain jurors seems to understand the law better than Reed, as demonstrated in this letter to the Christchurch Press last month:
As a member of David Bain’s retrial jury, I am angered by the misinterpretation of our not-guilty verdict by the public, and particularly by the media. In an article in The New Zealand Herald, shortly after the retrial verdict last June, Paul Holmes wrote: ‘‘David Bain is innocent. Robin Bain came in from the caravan that cold Monday morning and killed four sleeping members of his family, then himself.’’
This type of conclusion has been repeated many times in the year since the trial finished. Even in Friday’s Press article about an upcoming play about the murder case, Katie Chapman states that Bain’s ‘‘defence successfully argued that Robin was the killer’’. I take exception to this flawed characterisation of David Bain’s not-guilty verdict. As a jury, we did not necessarily find David innocent or Robin guilty. Our task was to determine if David Bain’s guilt was proved beyond reasonable doubt – a very high threshold. Anyone who reads from our verdict that Robin Bain is guilty is just plain wrong. Robin Bain was not on trial – David was.
Good on RNZ’s Monique Devereux for making this point.
Incidentally, this also rather suggests that there are occasions on which it is valuable to hear from jurors after a verdict, despite the hard line taken on this issue by many judges.
Topics: General | 46 Comments »
46 Responses to “The case against Michael Reed”
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
July 9th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
It all serves to highlight more of the fictions the law sometimes uses to support itself.
At common law, the ‘golden thread’ was a presumption of innocence, rebuttable on proof of reasonable doubt. Absent proof to that standard, the presumption of innocence remained. On that basis, David is innocent ‘at law’.
On the other hand, the BORA presumption of innocence is in relation to ‘the determination of the charge’ only. On that basis, now that the charge has been determined, David can no longer avail himself of the presumption of innocence and questions of ‘innocence’ remain to be determined if and when they arise.
An obvious but illuminating point is that if Robin Bain had survived his injury and been put on trial, he too would likely have been able to show a reasonable doubt and therefore secure an acquittal as well.
Karam v Justice For Robin Bain promise to be a very interesting case if it reaches trial (not least of all for it ironic name).
‘M’lud, in the case of Karam against Justice for Robin Bain…’:)
July 9th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
[…] Price’s comments on the Robin Bain TV documentary screened this week on TV1 HERE> and HERE> 0.000000 […]
October 2nd, 2017 at 8:56 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on|Find More|Read More Infos here|Here you will find 13139 more Infos|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
October 7th, 2017 at 1:02 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Find More Infos here|Here you can find 65840 additional Infos|Informations on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
November 9th, 2017 at 11:30 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Find More Infos here|There you will find 28870 more Infos|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
November 21st, 2017 at 3:26 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Find More Infos here|There you can find 45345 more Infos|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
November 30th, 2017 at 2:23 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Read More Informations here|Here you will find 1438 more Informations|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
December 1st, 2017 at 2:21 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Read More Informations here|There you will find 45122 additional Informations|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
December 16th, 2017 at 1:27 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Read More Informations here|There you will find 48064 additional Informations|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
January 10th, 2018 at 4:10 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Find More Infos here|There you will find 26063 additional Infos|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
January 20th, 2018 at 3:04 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Find More Infos here|Here you will find 14555 additional Infos|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
January 23rd, 2018 at 7:37 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Find More Informations here|Here you can find 9801 more Informations|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
January 28th, 2018 at 5:57 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Find More Informations here|Here you can find 26347 more Informations|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
February 11th, 2018 at 11:24 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on|Find More|Read More Infos here|There you will find 7748 more Infos|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
February 24th, 2018 at 4:32 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Read More Informations here|There you will find 21108 more Informations|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
March 8th, 2018 at 3:43 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on|Find More|Read More Informations here|Here you will find 57490 additional Informations|Informations on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
March 11th, 2018 at 6:24 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Read More Infos here|There you will find 78859 additional Infos|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
March 31st, 2018 at 11:50 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Find More Informations here|There you will find 13971 more Informations|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
April 25th, 2018 at 1:21 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Find More Infos here|Here you will find 66708 additional Infos|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
May 13th, 2018 at 12:53 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Read More Infos here|There you can find 17352 additional Infos|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
May 18th, 2018 at 7:36 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on|Find More|Find More Informations here|Here you will find 13337 additional Informations|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
May 20th, 2018 at 1:47 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Find More Informations here|Here you can find 90277 additional Informations|Informations on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
June 4th, 2018 at 3:52 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Find More Infos here|Here you will find 51942 more Infos|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
June 13th, 2018 at 1:55 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on|Find More|Find More Infos here|There you can find 30233 more Infos|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
July 3rd, 2018 at 7:51 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Find More Infos here|There you will find 61518 additional Infos|Informations on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
July 8th, 2018 at 6:52 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Read More Informations here|There you will find 71935 more Informations|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
July 18th, 2018 at 8:05 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Read More Infos here|There you can find 80950 additional Infos|Informations on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
July 24th, 2018 at 4:37 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Read More Informations here|Here you will find 96282 additional Informations|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
July 27th, 2018 at 11:58 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Read More Infos here|Here you will find 96991 additional Infos|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
August 4th, 2018 at 4:10 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Read More Infos here|There you will find 84049 more Infos|Informations on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
August 6th, 2018 at 5:01 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Read More Infos here|Here you will find 83960 more Infos|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
August 10th, 2018 at 7:28 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Find More Informations here|There you will find 14153 additional Informations|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
August 19th, 2018 at 9:44 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on|Find More|Find More Infos here|Here you will find 34287 additional Infos|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
August 20th, 2018 at 10:15 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Find More Infos here|Here you can find 78642 more Infos|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
August 21st, 2018 at 11:11 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Read More Infos here|There you will find 32158 more Infos|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
August 23rd, 2018 at 7:56 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Find More Infos here|There you will find 6093 more Infos|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
August 29th, 2018 at 6:09 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More here|Find More|Read More Informations here|Here you can find 69604 more Informations|Informations on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
September 1st, 2018 at 5:26 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Read More Informations here|Here you can find 66903 additional Informations|Informations on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
September 11th, 2018 at 10:07 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on|Find More|Find More Informations here|There you can find 92066 more Informations|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
September 15th, 2018 at 3:55 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Find More on|Find More|Read More Informations here|There you will find 1893 more Informations|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
September 19th, 2018 at 12:01 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Read More Infos here|There you can find 94728 additional Infos|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
September 26th, 2018 at 10:40 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Read More Infos here|Here you will find 78546 more Infos|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
September 27th, 2018 at 5:53 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Find More Infos here|Here you can find 15318 additional Infos|Informations to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
October 3rd, 2018 at 8:58 pm
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More on|Read More|Find More Informations here|Here you can find 98714 additional Informations|Infos on that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
October 4th, 2018 at 12:34 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Read More Informations here|Here you can find 40421 additional Informations|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]
December 19th, 2018 at 9:26 am
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More here|Read More|Find More Informations here|There you can find 14434 more Informations|Infos to that Topic: medialawjournal.co.nz/?p=383 […]