The Crown alleges Polkinghorne, 71, strangled his wife and staged her death to look like a suicide at their Remuera home but the defence says there is no evidence of a homicide.
The jury will began deliberating on Thursday, September 19.
Steve Braunias is an award-winning New Zealand journalist, author, columnist and editor.
OPINION
Is the Polkinghorne murder trial over yet? I write this on Wednesday morning, before the defence finishes its closing address, before the judge makes his summing up, before the jury is sentout to deliberate and reach a verdict in the trial that has occupied all my attention and distracted hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, these past eight weeks. It opened on Monday, July 29. I knew next to nothing about the case back then. Now, on September 18, I have filled 16 Warwick 3B1 notebooks with crucial and meaningless details, but have come no closer to knowing exactly what happened to Pauline Hanna, who died on April 5, 2021, because you never know.
Is the Polkinghorne murder trial over yet? The judge indicated on Tuesday he would ask the jury to leave the courtroom on Wednesday around 3pm. A verdict later on Wednesday afternoon is unlikely. That would allow only them two hours. A verdict in that short space of time might seem in undue haste, although you never know - the jury in the second murder trial of Arthur Allan Thomas trial took less than an hour, but sat around for a while enjoying a final cup of tea and some biscuits in the jury room so as to not to give the impression they had rushed to a decision. A ground-floor room in the High Court is filled with packets of biscuits for the jury. So many Krispies!
Is the Polkinghorne murder trial over yet? My bet is that the jury comes back sometime late Thursday afternoon, Friday midday at the latest. In which case the Polkinghorne murder trial is over, finished, done, settled, but you never know. I might be heading back to the High Court of Auckland on Monday. I might alight once more from the 101 bus at the university library, and float again through the lovely university gardens. There is a particularly beautiful specimen of impatiens I have taken a cutting from and brought back home to a corner of my garden. For years to come, I will think of it as the Polkinghorne corner.
Is the Polkinghorne murder trial over yet? For seven weeks, I set my mood to the time as shown on the university clock tower. During the four-week prosecution case, the clock was stuck at 12 – as in 12 midnight, an ominous, scarifying hour, the most gothic hour, the hour of doom. During the three-week defence case, the hands of the clock had moved, but were stuck at nine - as in nine in the morning, a wide-awake, reasonable hour, the most civilised hour, the hour of of calmly presented available facts. Since then it’s shown the right time. The hour of judgment awaits. You never know what the next minute will bring.
The Polkinghorne trial has lasted over eight weeks, with 60 witnesses for the prosecution and 20 for the defence. Photos / Michael Craig
Is the Polkinghorne murder trial over yet? There was a continual mystery and suspense to what the jury were thinking. It was present when the prosecution called 60 witnesses in an attempt to bolster its argument that Dr Philip Polkinghorne killed his wife Pauline; it was present when the defence called 20 witnesses in an attempt to bolster its argument that she died by suicide. I studied the faces of the jury. Surely just about everyone in courtroom 11 did the same. We looked for clues, for expressions of sympathy and distaste, but you never know. A sour face might be indigestion.
Is the Polkinghorne murder trial over yet? Throughout these eight weeks, I saw signs of it everywhere I looked, most recently on Wednesday morning before I made my way to court. I was going through a pack of flash cards with my daughter in preparation for her Year 13 biology exam. Question: “Hierarchies of the king.” Answer: “By being at the top, he will be able to mate with all females. Should food be scarce, his rank also ensures access to the available good, and he is unlikely to be confronted by other males.” Hm. King Polkinghorne definitely liked mating with quite a few females. He liked to dine at the Northern Club. But he has been confronted by something more powerful than a few men: the awesome power of the state.
Is the Polkinghorne murder trial over yet? It was a ratings hit. The trial offered legacy news media its best gift since former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern made us her “team of $50 million”. Meanwhile I had a good sideline going on in court, where I signed about a dozen copies of my latest book The Survivors: True Stories of Death and Desperation for members of the public. I state in the introduction it’s my third and final book of true crime. Perhaps this was a bit premature. You never know.
