A convicted murderer first jailed 20 years ago has failed to persuade the Supreme Court to look at the parole process that has kept him locked up.
Yesterday's dismissal of Eugene Benjamin Manuel's application for a second appeal means the Supreme Court, officially opened on July 1, has yet to accept its first case for hearing.
The court sits again next month to consider applications for appeals.
Manuel was convicted of murdering Frank Herbert, in Mangere, South Auckland and sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1984, while a teenager. He was released on parole in 1993 but recalled to prison in early 1996 after a string of convictions for relatively minor offences.
His second spell in prison has lasted more than eight years, with the Parole Board repeatedly refusing to release him. His case has been through the High Court and Court of Appeal as his lawyer tried to persuade the courts that continuing to detain Manuel was unlawful for a number of reasons.
Those cases were brought as applications for habeas corpus, a fast-track process under which people in custody have priority for a judge to consider if they are being unlawfully detained.
Manuel's lawyer, Tony Ellis, submitted to the Supreme Court yesterday that habeas corpus had been "diminished" here to the point where it was non-existent. He said Manuel's case could be taken to the United Nations human rights committee.
The Supreme Court decides what cases are important enough for it to hear. Justices Thomas Gault and Peter Blanchard said Manuel's case did not warrant a second appeal.
- NZPA
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