The Herald has a story this morning about Clayton Weatherston's legal aid bill; check this out:
Convicted killer Clayton Weatherston's legal aid bill has passed $440,000, with more invoices due.The former University of Otago economics tutor is serving a minimum jail term of 18 years for the murder of 22-year-old Sophie Elliott in her Dunedin home on January 9, 2008.Her father Gil told the Otago Daily Times Weatherston "did not deserve that kind of money spent on him".This week, a Ministry of Justice spokesman confirmed that Weatherston's legal aid bill stood at $444,981.Last year, his appeal against conviction was dismissed by the Court of Appeal and he later applied to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal against that ruling. That application was dismissed in September.The ministry has processed invoices worth $44,636 for the Court of Appeal proceedings. The bill for the murder trial stands at $400,344 but a final invoice has yet to arrive.Other than lawyers' time, legal-aid grants may include the cost of expert witnesses, forensic tests, investigators and office costs.
Oddly, we don't have a particular problem with this. One of the tenets of our legal system is that defendants are entitled to a proper defence, irrespective of how guilty they may appear to be.
That doesn't alter our belief that Clayton Weatherston is an especially nasty piece of work who is deservedly behind bars for a very long time. We say that because he HAS been through the whole gambit of the Court system, having exhausted all his appeals.
3 comments:
I absolutely agree.
We know that he's pond scum, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve representation.
If we believe in justice we need to allow due process.
Absolutely right, and this is where the accusations of the justice system being geared towards the offender come in. It's looks to people that "Clayton Weatherston got $450,000" but really, the people there trying to make sure he got put behind bars (Crown Prosecutors, etc) also were very well paid to do so. They just don't call it the costs for Sophie Elliot's case. In fact I don't think the information is released.
I don't mean to say that the justice system is doing all it can for victims and their families yet, but there's no sense being outraged at the costs. It begets a dangerous and frightening situation if you start limiting or denying people's access to legal defense.
Dead right Joel; in this case the system worked, and if Weatherston is kept behind bars where he deserves to be, then it's money well spent.
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