Book Launch of Murder that Wasn’t – the case of George Gwaze
Last night we held the official launch for Felicity Goodyear-Smith’s new book: Murder that Wasn’t – the case of George Gwaze.
Felicity Goodyear-Smith at book launch of Murder that Wasn’t – the case of George Gwaze
In the foreword, Law Professor Mark Henaghan and Professor of Psychology Harlene Hayne from the University of Otago write:
This book chronicles the real harm that can be done to an individual and their family when medical professionals, investigators and prosecutors appear to make assumptions about an individual’s guilt and then consider only the evidence that appears to support that outcome…
This book is a salutary reminder of how the fact-finders’ mindsets can influence their acceptance, rejection, recall and interpretations of objective scientific and medical data, so that alternative explanations that are more consistent with the evidence are never considered or adequately tested…
This book should be compulsory reading for all police investigators, Crown prosecutors, criminal defence lawyers and frontline medical professionals.
Marie Dyhrberg QC spoke in praise of the book. She made some very interesting comments about recent cutbacks to legal aid, which could prevent falsely accused defendants receiving a fair trial in the future.
George Gwaze also spoke:
Congratulations!
Yes! Big congratulations. The biggest weapon against ignorance and injustice is LOGOS. Can’t wait to read it.
This is an interesting case, too. It has recommendations that look good, IMO.
I have a friend who was raped twice by the Serial rapist Malcolm Rewa, mentioned in the article. He broke into her home (twice) and raped her while her children were in another room asleep and then cut her up. It was sad because she lost her children over it.
Anyways, here’s hoping something gets done for innocent men. 🙂
Another example of the ineptitude of our police and the prosecution AND IN FACT THE WHOLE SYSTEM.. We would be far better served – and certainly the accused, who very often turn out to be the victim – by abolishing our adversarial system of enquiry which operstes with singular tunnnel vision.. The work should be given to a body which functions like the Scottish Procurator Fiscal. There the facts are established by an INDEPENDENT BODY before the decision to prosecute is made.
Well done and congratulations to Felicity for her part in tonight’s ‘I Am Innocent’ episode on TV. The program was good but seemed overly considerate towards the police and system.
If anyone missed this episode and wants to view, it is currently available online here:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/ondemand/i-am-innocent/18-03-2017/series-2-episode-5.