Brown Justice 2
There is no way their skin colour had anything to do with anything (and if you say otherwise you are a communist).
Wrongly jailed women 'mistreated because young and brown', say lawyers
Lawyers claim three wrongly jailed women did not get higher compensation because of their age, race and social background.
Yesterday it was announced that Lucy Akatere, Tania Vini and McCushla Fuataha are to get payments ranging between $162,000 and $176,00.
Their lawyer Gary Gotlieb has said the compensation is not enough and he believed the girls had been "mucked around" because they were young and Polynesian.
Another lawyer, Peter Williams QC, who is also president of the Howard League for penal reform, said today there was "no doubt the colour of their skin" was a factor and if the women were people of high status their compensation would have been far greater.
Mr Williams told National Radio this morning: "I think there is a prejudice against people in what you may call the lower economic strata, I also think there is a prejudice against Maori people -- I think there is also a prejudice in this country against anyone who is a minority group."
The women each served seven months in prison after being falsely convicted of the aggravated robbery of a 16-year-old girl in an Auckland shopping mall in August 1999, before being cleared in 2001.
Mr Williams said an additional payment should be made because the amount was "very shabby".
Three previous legal opinions said the women should get at least $250,000 each and considering the length of time the payouts had taken with no interest the payout was inadequate, he said. However, he wasn't surprised by the outcome.
The women had been in prison as girls and suffered degradation and humiliation of imprisonment.
"I won't go into detail but some of it apparently was pretty awful, they'll have nightmares for the rest of their lives and this paltry sum that's been paid out is really very insignificant," he said.
posted by Bomber @ 9:33 am
19 comments
19 Comments:
i guess i must be a communist [but i'm not].
He would be better off sticking to dealing with Meth dealers like David Dunn...
Lets just hope they get fined according to their means the next time they end up committing crimes.
The money has probably gone already on Starter jackets, P and bling....
They could do worse than investing it in gym memberships...
According to the calculator on Statistics NZ's website, $13888.89 in 1979 is worth $66815.20 now. So that means, Mark, that yes, those kids got far less than AAT per month.
The calculator is here, by the way.
Hmmm. Between your commenters bomber, we seem to have the trifecta of race, sex and class prejudice. Well done, chaps. (You are all chaps, aren't you?)
But these slags actually did it...that's the good oil from the inside...
Gotlieb knows damn well that they did it, hence why he pushed them to settle their compo case for a lesser sum rather than risking having it reduced...one of the earlier posters hit the nail on the head, there was witness intimidation which led to the witness retracting their story.
A lot of people who are decrying this episode need to ask themselves whether they consider a savage aggravated robbery, followed by threats of equally savage violence against a witness is the way we want our justice system to function.
Gotlieb should stick to what he's good at, attempting to pervert the course of justice in helping wanted gang members avoid police. He was lucky to avoid hgetting locked up himself for that...
So all the cries of 'Racism' and 'Police incompetence ring pretty hollow when you hear the truth, huh?
And not only that deano, mark and gwb, but that they have been paid handsomely- for witness intimidation and corrupting the course of justice.
Those on the left should do some homework before going off half-cocked.
Really? Your scuttlebutt vs an appeal that went through multiple courts. Why should I believe what amounts to no more than gossip? I might just as well say the complete opposite, and claim to have the good oil from my legal mates.over a judge? Your readiness to believe the worst on hearsay alone is pretty depressing.
If your gossip were proved correct, then of course that would be scandalous. But as it stands, I can only go by what I read in the paper.
Lets get Tim to check it out on the inside for us. He gets all the good dirt.
Personally I think the witness should be made to pay the compensation. Why the hell should the taxpayer if the witness told porkies? Lets see how intimidated a witness would be facing a half million $ lawsuit.
The three were only released after a private investigator and lawyer hired by one of the girl’s families carried out a painstaking investigation, which uncovered evidence pointing to possible criminal offences by the detectives handling the case.
The police not only failed to investigate alibis presented by the girls and obtain a positive identification from the victim; they pressured a 13-year-old friend into making false statements about the girls’ involvement in the crime.
So who was standing over witnesses again? Perhaps your source with the good oil is just covering up for his/her mates. That's as likely as the other way around... isn't it?
They certainly look like thugs...especially the two hideous ones on the left and right....
Well said Stephen - so much of the comments here are simple racist bullshit dressed up in gossip. I'm glad you pointed that out, but I don't expect from reading some of his other posts here that GWB, Mark, WSam EC or Deano will respond
grin - hey reaper, good point!
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