By KEVIN TAYLOR
A New Plymouth gang member's acquittal of murder arising from false evidence is one situation where the Government's proposed exception to the law of double jeopardy might have applied.
In 1999, Kevin Francis Henare Moore, a former Taranaki Black Power president, was jailed for seven years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the murder of gang rival Robert Jillings in October 1991. Moore was tried for the murder and acquitted, but was later accused of getting a witness to give false alibi evidence at his trial.
In 1998, he was convicted on a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The Court of Appeal overturned the conviction, ordering a retrial in a different city.
This took place in Palmerston North the following year, and he was again convicted.
Justice John Doogue told Moore he had "literally got away with murder and avoided life imprisonment".
The Moore case also sparked a request from former justice minister Tony Ryall for a Law Commission study into the issue.
The commission recommended a limited exception to the rule where a person had secured an unmerited acquittal on a serious charge like perjury or obstructing or defeating the course of justice.
Gang leader could have been retried under double jeopardy exception
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.