Cold case tribunal good move

Anew government commission will be established under the coalition agreement between Labour and New Zealand First, to look into possible miscarriages of justice. New Zealanders have been aware that the justice system sometimes gets it wrong since the 1970s campaign to exonerate Arthur Allan Thomas for the murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe. Thomas was eventually pardoned.

More recent cases include Teina Pora, whose wrongful 1994 conviction for murdering Susan Burdett was quashed by the Privy Council in 2015. In the last 20 years, there have been seven payouts totalling $5.3 million to compensate people for time they wrongly spent in jail.

There are probably more people than we realise who are in jail but should not be there. That at least was the conclusion of retired High Court judge Sir Thomas Thorp, who researched the issue a decade ago.

Thorp at that time reckoned that 20 people were wrongly being held in prison, and recommended an independent specialist tribunal to investigate possible wrongful convictions.

The idea of a Criminal Justice Review Commission never gained official traction, however. Most political parties – including Labour, NZ First and the Greens – supported it, but not the one which has been in government for the last nine years.

National supported a private member’s bill to establish a commission while in opposition in 2007 but abandoned the idea when it became the government. Former Prime Minister John Key saw no reason for it, and neither did his justice ministers Judith Collins and Amy Adams.

This means that miscarriages of justice have had to be championed by dogged advocates for those who have been wronged – in Pora’s case retired detective Tim McKinnel and lawyer Jonathan Krebs. There have been other non-governmental attempts to set up what are sometimes called ‘‘innocence projects’’, including the New Zealand Public Interest Project backed by lawyers and university academics.

But such efforts depend on volunteer time and public fundraising, and the exhausting responsibility for trying to fix the failings of the justice system should not be left to private citizens, however motivated, skilled or dedicated.

Incoming Justice Minister Andrew Little has previously spoken in support of an official tribunal, as did Jacinda Ardern when she was Labour’s justice spokesman.

One model sometimes cited is Britain’s Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), a statutory but independent investigative body established following some high-profile cases in the United Kingdom.

The CCRC has referred 627 cases back to the courts and secured 419 successful appeals.

Some might argue that having a stand-alone review tribunal calls the courts into question, but that doubt has already been raised by the cases where things have gone wrong. The new commission will strengthen the justice system, not weaken it.

Miscarriages of justice have had to be championed by dogged advocates.