Bain 1 up for retrial; Bain 2 put to the vote
The Solicitor General has decided the recently bailed David Bain will face a fresh retrial over the 1994 murders of five members of his family.
Bain was released on bail last month after the Privy Council quashed his convictions, ruling he had been the victim of a "substantial miscarriage of justice". However, the Solicitor General says the Privy Council's judgement didn't actually decide whether he was innocent or guilty.
Bain's long-time supporter Joe Karam quite rightly points that out a retrial will be costly. Dunedin Police say all but three of the original witnesses and evidence are still available.
Meanwhile, Police Association President Greg O'Connor has called for the retrial to be televised in full so that "the public will have the opportunity to hear all the evidence in full... not just the selective pieces published in the media."
This seems an interesting stance from the Police, given the extreme efforts they go to rally their "old boy network" to try and bury any media coverage of the growing avalanche of evidence revealing widespread corruption, misconduct and blatant law breaking by the country's officers (Dunedin being one of the worst offending regions).
It's expected Bain's retrial will be held in Dunedin early next year, although it remains to be seen how an impartial jury can be put together, given the barrage of media coverage of the case over the last 13 years.
The locally-made short film is now one of 3 Musicals in the 48Hours National final on July 1st (8.30pm on C4 TV), after Director Peter Jackson chose two musicals amongst his wildcards (one apparently featuring some of New Zealand's top hip-hop stars).
Posted at 10:51 pm
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