Monday, May 28, 2012

Appealed

Tame Iti is appealing both his conviction and sentence from the Urewera 4 trial.

That's not surprising. Justice Hansen's sentencing comments [PDF] made it clear that the judge was substituting his own opinion for that of the jury, and sentencing Iti for a crime he had not been convicted of - in the process turning him into a martyr like Rua Kenana. The conviction will be harder to overturn - but being able to test it is part and parcel of having a robust justice system.

So, this is going to go on for a while longer, it seems.