How stupid would you feel?
If you were on the parole board, and had decided Graeme Burton posed no undue risk to the public, how stupid are you feeling right now? He is on the run, armed. Police have already found a Glock pistol, a .22 rifle, two rifles cut down to pistols, ammunition, knives, batons, a Kevlar helmet, a telescopic sight and a crossbow.
Now he was serving life for murder. That meant the parole board did not have to ever let him out. he let himself out in 1998 when he and three others escaped from Paremoremo. This led to the first ever public deployment of the Special Tactics Group of the Armed Offenders Squad.
That it seems didn’t even lead to him being given a longer sentence or non parole period.
I don’t think you had to be an Einstein to work out his good behaviour in prison for the last two years (not the previous twelve) was purely for the purpose of parole, and not genuine.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Can we list (with addresses) the morons who
were on the parole board? Perhaps we could stake out their homes like the Father’s for Justice people with an “Honest, non-violent citizens for justice” programme.
January 5th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Yet again we see a problem that could easily be solved by accountability.
Do you think if a parole board could be charged with the crimes a prisoner commits while on parole we would see this type of thing occur as frequently?
By the way before the “left” jump on the ludicrousness of the suggestion go read the principle of vicarious responsibility that the employers of this country already have to endure…
January 5th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
The problem we have here is that incarceration numbers and terms are a political issue. It’s hardly a valid thing to compare between countries as it is a community that has an incarceration rate not a country.
We therefore need to look at the types and numbers (the spread) of the communities that are fostered in the country we are looking at to see what impact the countries social policies actually have.
Simply put the number of car thief’s living in Epsom per head of population would not be consistent with Otahuhu.
NZ as a country spends billions of dollars fostering communities of welfare dependency and minor lawlessness. Minor lawlessness and short term incarceration leads to hardened and more desperate criminals.
Labour policy eh – give hundreds of millions to middle and upper income families to buy new 42″ widescreen TV’s and…. sorry we can only afford 1/3 of the extra Police we require and we can’t afford to build enough prisons so we will let a few long termer’s out so we can cram in a few new boys.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Not only should the parole boards be held accountable but also the judiciary. A classic example is Jules Mikus who was eventually found guilty of murdering Teresa Cormack. He had a long history of short sentences for sex crimes and other offences
Quoting from the Herald reports:
“By 1987, Mikus already had five convictions for sex offences – he was arrested for his first sex crime when he was 14 – and had made a string of court appearances on burglary charges.”
“Mikus, told them of his history of sex crimes, burglary and dishonesty offences. The cases included a vicious rape attempt on a schoolgirl in Lower Hutt about three years before Teresa disappeared.”
Had the system been doing its job properly there is no doubt that Teresa and many others would be alive today.
January 5th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Piss poor choice of armaments.
Too much television perhaps?
January 5th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Abolish “time off for good behaviour”. Everyone should serve the sentence they were given with the possibility of time added for bad behaviour.
January 5th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Giving someone parole is like taking a punt on the future and sometimes parole boards get things wrong. The other alternative is to simply lock up people who have offended especially murder and never let them out. The system of parole tries to draw a distiction between someone who does not pose a risk and someone who does. It is not perfect, mistakes are made. If one is too cautious in this area then people are locked up when they should be released. Traditionally we have erred in favour of releasing people rather than erring in favour of detention. You are going to err, it is a matter of where you strike that balance.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Tim – no parole – no err
January 5th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
what all of your writers has missed is that this guy was never going to be in prison for ever. There comes a time when prisoners have to be released. If a non-paroled criminal commits a crime after their release, as some criminals do, who would you blame? Presumably not the parole board.
IMO murderers shouldn’t be eligible for parole. But I believe that criminals can reform. Sex offenders, for example, seldom reoffend if they receive treatment.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
>That meant the parole board did not have to ever let him out.
Wrong, he was due to be released at some stage. It was a case of when, not if. If he had served the full length of his sentence, he may still have done what he’s done.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
>That meant the parole board did not have to ever let him out.
Wrong, he was due to be released at some stage. It was a case of when, not if. If he had served the full length of his sentence, he may still have done what he’s done.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
The death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment for murder. 10 years for murder and 5 years for accessory to murder is simply not good enough.
January 6th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Well, you wouldn’t feel too bad at all, why should they?
Pinko social liberals are always right – Burton started his crime spree because of the indignation he felt when offered a paltry $7ph to flip burgers at Wendy’s in 1991.
It’s all the fault of the new class enemy….
January 6th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Whoever was chairing the board at the time is a shoe-in for Auditor-General in Labour win in 08.
January 6th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I have just read the devastating news about the further mayhem this man is reported to have “allegedly” caused together with an account of the murder he was convicted for – sickening!
The membership of the New Zealand Parole Board is given on the Board’s web site at:
http://www.paroleboard.govt.nz/nzpb/aboutus/whoswho.html
Lots of judges and public servants.
Section 7 of the Parole Act 2002 states:
“When making decisions about, or in any way relating to, the release of an offender, the paramount consideration for the Board in every case is the safety of the community.”
Accountability, ministerial and otherwise???
January 6th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
New members of the Parole Board are appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Attorney-General, currently Hon Michael Cullen. The most recent official media statement about a new appointment I could find is at: http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=22547
January 7th, 2007 at 10:59 am
What the parole board should ask themselves is this: would I like this person living next door to me? Of course, such a question probably never occurs to board members because they know that the likes of Mr Burton are unlikely to live in their neighborhood.
I wonder if this man is any relation to the Minister of Justice, Mark Burton?
January 9th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Interesting reading the list of parole board members responsible for this decision and noticing one was a forensic psychiatrist currently working at Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch.
Hillmorton Hospital are responsible for an alarming number of Bipolar, and Borderline Personality women who cry rape in Christchurch each year although it usually turns out they were not raped but were delusional and having fantasies after they had consumed 4 Diazepam and 2 Immovan or whatever the standard dose of medication is these days and after they have had therapy to recover their repressed memories with one of the feminist psychotherpaists that seem to be infiltrating the psych wards.
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