Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Craig Kapitan: NZ Herald Reporter on the jury beginning deliberations in the trial of Philip Polkinghorne

Transcript

Craig Kapitan: NZ Herald Reporter on the jury beginning deliberations in the trial of Philip Polkinghorne · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here in New Zealand. The fate of Philip Polkinghorn now
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: lies in a jury of eight women and three men.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: We could have a verdict by today or in the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: next couple of days. And the murder trial over the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: death of his wife Pauline Hannah in twenty twenty one,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: seven weeks eighty witnesses. The jury is out for deliberation
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and Craig Capitana is with us. He's the New Zealand
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Herald court reporter.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Craig. Good morning, morning, Ryan, how are you very well?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being with me. What is this jury deciding on? Basically?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Is it essentially was this murder or was this suicide?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah? The councils this is a very binary decision. The facts,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: the way the house was found. They really only have
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: two decisions. Is a murder of suicide.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Is and if there's a chance that this was suicide.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Are they not able to find Philip Polkinghorn guilty of murder?
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Well, they do have a lesser charge they can they
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: can vote on, which is manslaughter. But that hasn't really
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: been discussed by the Crown or the defense and closing arguments.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Uh so that's more of a technicality really. I would
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: imagine there they will definitely be coming back with a
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: guilty or not guilty to murder it appears, and if
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: it's not guilty, there's a very good chance he'll be
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: walking out of the.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Courtroom, and that could be happening as early today. I mean,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: it's a stupid question to ask, how long do you
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: deliver right for? How long is a pace of strength?
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's anybody's guess, but if I had, if I
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: had guess, I'd say it's not gonna be quick. But
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: that comes with the caveat that I'm almost one hundred
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: percent wrong on these guesses, so who knows.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I appreciate honest.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if they do go past today, court won't be
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: sitting tomorrow, so we'll stretch into week nine. If if
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: it takes more than to day.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Took us through the units versus majority voterict, what you
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: need to get and how that operates.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Well, they're gonna have to sit and work towards an
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: unanimous for quite a while. That's I think the minimum
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: is four hours, but usually it's much longer. If they
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: can't make a decision by then, the judge will give
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: them a direction that they can at some point they
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: can have a unanimous verdict instead, which only allows one
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: person to dissent. So we started out with twelve jurors,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: but one juror was dismissed a couple of weeks ago
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: because this trial has run so long, so we have
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: eleven jurors. Now, technically we could have a ten to
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: one vote for guilty or not guilty and with the
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: good go, but that's going to be a little bit
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: down the track.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And if that's not possible, then we get to
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: a hung jury and then we get to a potential retrial.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: That way, we're in that territory.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, don't remind me of that.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Craig, thank you very much for that. Great to understand
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and talk through exactly what people can expect from this decision,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: which we, as you say, may get today, may get
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: next week. Craig Capitan with US New Zealand Herald court
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: reporter covering the Polkinghorn trial. For more from News Talk
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: sed B, listen live on air or online, and keep
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: our shows with you wherever you go with our podcasts
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: on Irradio