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David Bain went out to do his early morning paper run and returned to find his father had.killed the rest of the family and committed suicide..David put on a load of washing and called the police about 20 minutes later. David's father left a message on the computer saying "you are the only one who deserved to stay". After a lengthy trial David was found guilty of the murders but about 15 years later after a retrial was found not guilty. No one else was ever charged. About half New Zealand thinks he did it.the rest arent sure
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Hi magoo,Originally posted by magoo View Post
Yes, it's a very interesting case. Joe Karem, a former rugby player for NZ, took up the cause to get David's conviction overturned. He's written a few books over the years, and in his first one he made accusations of evidence tapering (I think that's what it was; some sort of misconduct that prejudiced things again David) against two police officers who sued him for defamation. He won that case.
One key bit of evidence in support of David's innocence was based upon the computer with the message typed on it. Because the message wasn't saved, there was no time stamp as to what time it was written. However, they were able to determine how long the computer had been turned on and therefore work backwards to determine what time it had been turned on. They based that turn on time on the watch of one of the officers, which worked out to be a time when David could have been home. However, the officer was instructed to find out how accurate his watch was (was his watch fast or slow) because if it was slow, then that's more time for David to be inside, but if it was fast, it might alibi him as he was spotted delivering his papers. Turned out his watch was fast, indicating the computer was turned on at a time when David was known to be in the street delivering his papers. (I may have some specifics wrong here, I think they couldn't use the computer clock for some reason, either it wasn't set properly or something like that).
There were some other mishandling of evidence things as well. One was testimony by an officer about where he found a lens from glasses David was wearing, and I think where it was claimed to have been found was argued as being evidence against David. However, when going through the crime scene photos, the lens was spotted in a different location in one of the photos, and in a place that destroyed the argument that was being made (I think this was one of the things that Karam may have gotten sued for? He may have presented it in his book as the officer knowingly misrepresenting where the lens was found? but I'm not entirely sure of that).
I've read Bain and Beyond (his 2nd book), which is good. It was published before the Privy Council in the UK overturned the conviction and called for a new trial. His first book, David and Goliath, brought the case to the public's attention in the 90's and it was debated ever since, but I've never read that one (I figured the 2nd book would be more up to date, and probably covered most of the "still relevant and supported" ideas that the first one would have presented). I should pick up his 4th book (Trial by Ambush), as it was published after David won his case in the Privy Council and had a re-trial in New Zealand, where he was found not guilty of all charges.
- Jeff
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