Sentences `race-based justice'

JONATHAN DOW
Two Hawke's Bay mothers took money earmarked for children's learning - one went straight to jail the other was remanded "at large" and given leave to apply for home detention.
Whether race had anything to do with these two sentences depends who you talk to - some say it does, others disagree and another says that you cannot compare the two. Donna Awatere Huata's sentence of two years and nine months was met with calls of "white man's justice"; Margaret Wyley's conviction was cheered and clapped by school parents.
Unsuccessful Maori Party candidate Atareta Poananga said this was another example of an anti-Maori bias in the New Zealand justice system.
But Wyley's lawyer Bill Calver said "it's utter bulldust" to say Wyley avoided jail because of her ethnicity. The sentence she received last Friday was in line with current sentencing principles.
In sentencing Wyley, the judge took a great deal of information - medical factors and so forth - that the media did not access and the public were not aware of, he said. Wyley had accepted her guilt at the earliest possible opportunity and paid back all the money she had stolen.
"Had she not repaid the money there would have been almost no chance she would have avoided a custodial sentence.
"I have no doubt whatsoever that had these factors been present in Mrs Huata's case then the outcome would have been totally different."
And home detention was not a breeze - it is a severe curtailing of one's lifestyle, he said.
Ms Poananga said Wyley's sentence and the harsh sentences Maori received was evidence the justice system was biased or Maori were more criminal "and I don't believe that".
"I still wonder if Donna had done the same thing: What would have been the outcome?"
It's almost impossible to compare the sentences two people receive, said Philip Morgan QC, the convener of the New Zealand Law Society's criminal law committee.
He did not think there was any discrepancy between the two sentences and the legal profession realised the notion that influenced sentencing was a myth.
"The apparent discrepancy arises because someone comparing the cases isn't taking something into account that the judge did."
Napier lawyer Amanda Courtney said those who oppose imprisonment should celebrate Wyley's sentence but she finds it hard to reconcile it with sentences being given to some other women.
Particularly people convicted of benefit-fraud, usually for far smaller amounts, are being sent straight to jail, without deferrment of sentence pending applications for home detention.
"She (Wyley) had the right outcome," Miss Courtney said. "Prison was not going to do anything for her, but it's a shame that some people from lower socio-economic groups don't have the same opportunity."
"Usually our clients cannot afford to pay the money back," she said.