New Zealand: Glenn report released: Shift burden of proof on those accused of domestic violence

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2014-06-17 02:16

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sir Owen Glenn's independent inquiry into family violence suggests shifting the burden of proof in "domestic" cases so that alleged perpetrators are considered guilty unless they can prove they are innocent.

The first report from the $2 million inquiry, issued today, has found "overwhelming agreement" among the 500 people who gave evidence that New Zealand's current court system is "dysfunctional and broken".

"The court system structure and processes, and the people working within it, revictimise and retraumatise victims," it says.

The first report, called "The People's Report", does not make specific recommendations, which are expected in a final report by the end of this year.

But it offers "ideas for change" from those who gave evidence, including "a major review of the court system". Ideas include:

• "Revisit the burden of proof so that it lies with perpetrators not victims."'

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Comments

'• "Revisit the burden of proof so that it lies with perpetrators not victims."

• Review the adversarial system which "places an excessive burden of proof on victims", replacing it with "a more collaborative system where the burden of proof is on the perpetrator". '

This idea is not only beyond unfair, it is illogical. It is near impossible to prove a negative. It is much more feasible to prove that something does in fact exist or did happen. That is why the burden of proof should stay with the accuser, where it belongs.

• End the court's "gender bias" which "fosters institutional abuse and revictimisation of victims, while perpetrators were often not held accountable for their behaviour".

Indeed, their gender bias against MALE victims needs to stop. It is inherent in this very article, especially where it says : "

' "While tane [men] may be perpetrators today, they have their own stories of being victims of child abuse, neglect and domestic violence." '

Indeed the ones conducting this so-called "report" are so misandric that despite acknowledging the existence of female perpetrators, all the focus is paid to male perpetrators. Your tax dollars at work.

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Submitted by xtrnl on Sat, 2014-06-21 01:27

This is simply a proposal to embrace Napoleonic law, under which the accused is presumed guilty until proven innocent.

But if one is going to make this presumption in domestic cases, why not all cases?

There really is no way to know in advance who the perpetrator is and who the victim is. If we can know that in advance, trials are unnecessary. Since we already know the black guy did it, we can just go ahead and lynch him.

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Submitted by el cid on Fri, 2014-06-20 14:31