Desperate for attention
The appeal by Brendon Tarrant is a desperate bid for attention, rather than a serious judicial process. Tarrant is obviously unhappy that he has faded from public consciousness, so this is a way to try and get a few more minutes of fame, or infamy.
It is dangerous to predict the Court of Appeal, but I would be staggered if they order a new trial. Let’s look at what has been reported:
The Christchurch mosque shooter claims that he was effectively “forced” to plead guilty because of harsh prison conditions that drastically impacted his mental health.
If he didn’t want to have harsh prison conditions, he shouldn’t have shot scores of innocent people.
“I did not have the mind frame or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time,” the gunman said.
“I think the issue is, did I really know what I wanted to do or what would be a good idea? No, I didn’t actually.”
The legal test isn’t whether you were in perfect mental health. It is whether you were either clinically insane or mentally competent. Tarrant has provided zero evidence he was mentally incompetent apart from his own assertions.
Tarrant’s lawyers, who met with or phoned him some 40 times while he was awaiting trial, said he didn’t exhibit any signs of serious mental illness.
This is how you know it is not serious. His own lawyers have said he showed no signs at all. He’s just having a go because he can.
He said that there was limited reading material made available to him in prison, and the process for requesting more books was not explained to him.
This is what he claims is torture and harsh treatment!
He said he went through roughly two books per week and would request articles and content about world events from his lawyers, some of them about himself and others about things like the Notre Dame Cathedral burning down.
Oh poor diddums. He didn’t have unlimited access to articles about himself.
The appeal is a farce. But everyone has the right to an appeal so it has to have due process. But unless the entire Court of Appeal themselves go clinically insane, there won’t be a new trial.
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