So I'm reading the Sunday Star Times yesterday (well my mind was *elsewhere* on Sunday...), and came across the article detailing that Accused Killers get $1.5m aid (legal aid). On that title you would assume the article refers to:
- all legal aid in NZ for one year for people accused of murder or manslaughter.
But no, this referred to the top 10 most expensive murder cases over the last 5 years.
Now my first opinion on this was that $1.5m per year for legal aid didn't seem that bad. Surely if you want to have a balanced legal system, then fair representation might, just might, be a good thing. Given the State has, in theory, more resources than Jo and Josephine Bloggs and if they were accused of murder, then providing them with representation should make the State have to work for a prosecution.
But that isn't what pissed me off. It's the beat-up to create a drama by not revealing the facts - aside from IT'S COSTING TAX PAYER MONEY!!!
Firstly, 1.5 over 5 years comes to, what $300,000 per year. In no way is that excessive. There were 10 murderers in the list, so that works out to $150,000 per trial. To put that into perspective, if we assume there are 4m people in NZ then per murder trial we are all contributing roughly 4c. And yes I'm aware not everyone pays taxes, so it will be higher than that. To ensure a balanced legal system, I don't think thats a huge cost!
So my points:
- she should have spelt out that this was over 5 years
- she should have given a total for how much legal aid was per year
- she should have put that in perspective WRT the NZ population
So if anyone knows Leigh van der Stoep, tell her she's an idiot.
Love, B.
1 comment:
There's a book out on the Ozzie justice system at the moment. The author makes the salient point "most people would rather see a guilty man walk free than an innocent man punished". Confronting but true, I think.
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