Dog people and cat people divided on David Bain's 'innocence'

clipped from www.stuff.co.nz OPINION As there are dog people and cat people, as there are those who believe Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and others who swear he walked on a Hollywood backlot, so this morning the world - or at least New Zealand - is divided into those who believe that David Bain is guiltless, and those who do not. Just so you know: I am firmly in the latter camp. Bain is, in my opinion, an antipodean OJ Simpson. Sure, Bain was pronounced not guilty by a jury after an amateurish police investigation, but he is not universally perceived as innocent of the crime. Sure there were all manner of media pundits and jurors exalting in last Friday's verdict. There was the obligatory leg-humping from that TV3 terrier John Campbell, and TV One's Wendy Petrie fist-pumping that she could string a sentence together without an autocue. But half of New Zealand remains unconvinced, and I'm among the doubters. But it had its partisan elements as could be gauged by the partying jurors at Bain's celebratory party.

As for juries, there is no mandatory IQ test for jurors. Pity. I'd bet that the average would be less than the national average and thus undermine the whole concept of being judged by one's peers. By one's thick peers, maybe.

And then there is the "likeability factor". Are the personalities parlaying the facts pleasant or not? Is the defendant? Especially given that they are not legally required to present themselves for cross-examination. An escape that must be ended. Everyone else is obliged to be called and give evidence under oath why not the defendant?

All contributed to the freeing of David Bain last Friday. But none exonerated him. And therein lies Bain's, and Joe Karam's, problem for decades.

SHOOT: Good to see this writer reiterating a point I made earlier, namely that the jury were a bunch of braindead clots, and that the justice system is not very sophisticated and needs to play catch-up to a society and a world that increases in subtlety and sophistication by the minute.