A good win

On Sunday I blogged on how the Solicitor-General’s new guidelines for prosecutions instructed prosecutors to consider the race of defendants and victims before deciding whether to lay charges.

I broke the story, that had not been covered elsewhere at all, after a defence lawyer alerted me to it. It is somewhat sad that they asked to keep their name confidential as they feared speaking out against the guidelines could see them lose their practising certificate. That is the culture of intolerance and fear that lawyers now face.

Anyway from my blog post on Kiwiblog, it got noticed by lobby groups such as the Sensible Sentencing Trust and Hobson’s Choice. The Platform picked it up, as did Newstalk ZB. Then on Tuesday ACT criticised the guidelines and other media platforms started to report on it.

On Thursday the Attorney-General said she didn’t agree with the wording of them, and today on Friday the Solictor-General said the guidelines are being withdrawn and rewritten.

This shows the impact one can have. If that defence lawyer had never approached me, these guidelines might well have come into force on 1 January. In just five days we got a major reversal from the Solicitor-General.