Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Roderick Mulgan: Criminal defence lawyer on the Philip Polkinghorne verdict

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Roderick Mulgan: Criminal defence lawyer on the Philip Polkinghorne verdict · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Not guilty. Pulkinghorn walked free from court yesterday quittive murdering
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: his wife Pauline Hannah. Finally a verdict. Roderick Mullgan is
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a criminal defense lawyer. He's with US Live this morning. Roderick,
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  Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning. Were you surprised at that verdict? No?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Why not?
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  Speaker 2: I think many people saw that coming. But the thing
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  Speaker 2: about criminal justice, as we all know, is doubt. So
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  Speaker 2: if there's doubt, you've got to have an acquittal. And
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: even though many people were suspicious, did he really do it?
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  Speaker 2: It's just not enough. It is a high bar. It
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  Speaker 2: is difficult to convict people on circumstantial evidence. And as
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  Speaker 2: judges are saying the juries all the time, even if
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: you think it's likely somebody did it, that's not enough.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: You've got to be sure, and you just can't be
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  Speaker 2: sure of that evidence.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Most of the jury clearly didn't think it was suicide,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: because they said as much in their question to the judge.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: What happens now with the cogner? What if the coroner
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: rules that it's not suicide.
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  Speaker 2: The coroner has a different standard of evidence. The coroner's
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  Speaker 2: inquiry is balance of probabilities. What's more, likely, so it's
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  Speaker 2: not a criminal inquiry. So the coroner is free to
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: come to a different conclusion if they think the evidence
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  Speaker 2: merits it. So you can have the jury saying, well,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: there's some doubt about whether it was further, and you
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: have the coroner saying it's likely to be murdered, and
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: those two things can sit side by side because they're
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  Speaker 2: answering the question to two different levels.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: What would require, what would be required for a retrial?
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  Speaker 1: More evidence, new evidence?
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  Speaker 2: What a trial is big and as complex and as
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: thorough as this, a new trial could only happen if
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  Speaker 2: there was very, very substantial new evidence, and it just
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  Speaker 2: doesn't exist because everything here is circumstantial. Interesting, There was
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  Speaker 2: never an eyewitness, there was never a photograph, there was
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  Speaker 2: never a fingerprint. So it's not going to.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Happen to your mind, Polkinghorn is a free man for good. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: thanks so much for your time, Roderic Mulgan.
• 2:29
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• 2:32
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• 2:35
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