Joe won't like this...

As he embarks on another attempt to milk the Bain cash cow via a third book, Joe Karam won't like this story in today's Dom-Post; check this out:

A juror from the second trial of David Bain wrote to the justice minister urging him not to pay compensation for wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

Mr Bain, 39, was acquitted in 2009 by a Christchurch jury of charges he murdered his parents Margaret, 50, and Robin, 58, and three siblings Arawa, 19, Laniet, 18, and Stephen, 14, in June 1994 in Dunedin.

The juror wrote to then justice minister Simon Power in April 2010 raising, among other things, misgivings about the conduct of the jury during the trial.

The Dominion Post cannot report much of the the letter because the law prevents the publication of material revealing the deliberations of a jury.The Bain juror also expressed concerns about the jury not having access to evidence that was suppressed until the verdict was reached and then released after the trial.

In the letter, the juror reveals three other jurors, of their own volition, visited Every St, where the murders took place, during the trial.

Jurors must reach their verdict only on evidence heard or seen in court. They must not make their own investigations during the trial.

In closing, the juror says: "Given the extraordinary length of this trial, the overwhelming media and public interest in the case, the complicated technical evidence, upsetting photos and exhibits, and the conflicting evidence of the experts, this trial certainly took an emotional toll on all of us." The jurors were offered counselling during and after the trial.

These revelations should come as no surprise to anyone. If anything, we believe that the Crown made a stronger case for David Bain's guilt at the second trial, and the jury's verdict was, in our bush-lawyer opinion, against the weight of that evidence.

Justice Ian Binnie will not see the letter to which the Dom-Post story refers. His recommendation to the Minister will be based on his expert assessment of the evidence. On that basis, we hope that his assessment of the evidence against David Bain is similar to that which many, many thousands of New Zealanders hold, and that he recommends that an acquittal is as good as it is going to get for David Bain and for Joe Karam, and that no compensation is offered.