New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Mental illness as mitigation

  • 7 Dec 2020

    R v VAN HEMERT [2020] NZHC 3203

    Citation
    [2020] NZHC 3203
    Court
    High Court

    The defendant was suffering a severe psychotic episode causative of the killing and oversight in the committal assessment process contributed to the risk; accordingly, imposing life imprisonment would be manifestly unjust although the defendant was not legally insane. Applying a starting point of 18 years for the brutality and vulnerability of the victim, the Court applied a 25% (4.5 years) reduction for mental illness and a further approximately 19% (3.5 years) reduction for the guilty plea, yielding a finite sentence of 10 years, with a minimum period of imprisonment of six years and eight…

  • 29 Jun 2018

    PEARCE v R [2018] NZCA 228

    Citation
    [2018] NZCA 228
    Court
    Court of Appeal

    The sentencing judge relied on an incorrect factual premise that Pearce struck the primary victim; because there was no evidence he delivered the blows to Officer Prasad his culpability was lower than the lead co-offender and the starting point should be reduced by one year (to nine years) with a one-year uplift for the separate offending, yielding a ten-year starting point; applying the 15% guilty plea discount correctly reduces the sentence to eight years six months; extension of time to appeal was granted because the sentence was founded on a factual error causing manifest excess.