No Winners Here

I probably get too involved in some things but I found this trial kind of morbidly fascinating. Grace Millane was murdered here in Auckland in December 2018 by a local man she met online. He seems to have a history of being very unstable and some women from his past testified that they were terrified of him. A former flatmate reportedly slept with a knife in her bed. The defense did the best they could with what they had.

There were a few things that really stood out to me. First the unbelievable amount of information and video footage the police had on both the victim and the perpetrator before and after the event. They could even disprove one of his most benign statements: that he had left or thrown away the shovel in the forest where he buried her - they had CCTV footage from the car wash showing him placing it in the bay next door before leaving.

The other thing that stood out to me is how the victim can be put on trial. Her family were traumatised twice. Once by the heartbreaking loss of someone so precious to them and then again during the trial. The defense has the right to do anything legally within their power to prove their client is innocent. I don't know that there is a solution to this problem. The defense certainly has the right to scrutinise the victim, for instance in a claim where self-defense is the main thrust of proving someone innocent, but it still seems wrong and incredibly sad what her family, especially her parents, had to endure.

I still struggle to process incidents like this. No one won here. The murderer who somehow must have felt that there was some pay off for his actions is going to go to jail for a very long time.

Which brings me to this, an incredibly well written article that covers some of our most important issues in this day and age. I always appreciate people who can say what I am thinking in a much more compelling way than I am able to.

https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/11/grace-millane-trial-victim-blaming/