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The murder of Feilding farmer Scott Guy and the subsequent trial of his brother-in-law Ewen Macdonald was a case that captivated the New Zealand media and public.
Guy, who ran the family farm with Macdonald, was shot and killed at the end of his driveway on the morning of July 8, 2010. After an intense police investigation, Macdonald, who was married to Guy’s sister Anna, he was charged with the murder.
In a 2012 High Court trial in Wellington, a jury found Macdonald not guilty of Guy’s murder.
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Attorney Greg King is the subject of the documentary Friend Of The Friendless.
However, he was sent to prison for a variety of other crimes, including vandalism at Guy’s home.
READ MORE:
* Private investigation hears new information about Scott Guy’s murder
* Ewen Macdonald’s father supports private investigation into Scott Guy’s death
* The murder of Scott Guy 10 years later: did the cops get the wrong man?
When Macdonald was tried for Guy’s murder, he was represented by Greg King, a criminal lawyer known for handling difficult cases.
A new docu-drama, Friend of the friendless, highlights King’s work in connection with his defense of Macdonald for Guy’s murder.
The program includes archival footage of King being interviewed, video clips of the Superior Court trial and dramatic reenactments.
The show is hosted by Massey University Law Professor Chris Gallivan. While Gallivan never knew King, who died in November 2012, he has the utmost respect for him.
“He was held in high esteem in the legal fraternity,” says Gallivan. “Although this is not a documentary about Greg, the person outside of his profession, we have his parents, who speak very fondly of who Greg was, particularly as a child and the kind of man Greg was.
“So I think his reputation as an attorney was that he was an extremely talented criminal defense attorney, but maybe even more than that, he was, to the end, committed to a sense of justice, fairness and what’s right.”
Gallivan believes there were many reasons why the case received so much media attention. One, it was a classic police novel. Then there was the ‘telenovela’ aspect in the sense that it involved a wealthy peasant family.
“This is an intimate story of his family,” says Gallivan. “It has become almost folklore within New Zealand. But we always have to remember that these are real people, these are real lives, and this is the detailed and intricate work of a united family.
“You had two women… with Anna, Ewen’s wife, and Kylie, Scott’s wife. In order not to put too much emphasis on it, both (are) beautiful. Each of them became media superstars. “
In a television interview on Friend of the friendless, King reveals another reason the case is so notorious.
“Greg was very direct when they asked him this question,” says Gallivan. “He said it was racism … I totally agree with him.
“If this was a case involving Maori families in the south back of Auckland, no one would have been so remotely interested. This involves white people who are quite wealthy. “
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Chris Gallivan from Friend Of The Friendless.
At the end of the 2012 trial, some people were shocked when Macdonald was found not guilty.
Gallivan admired the way King handled the case. “Greg was good,” he says. “He gave a master class on how to execute a defense.”
Gallivan believes the jury made the right decision.
“In the documentary I say that this is not a case of lawyers from big cities fooling a naive jury,” he says. “These are attorneys who are doing a very good job, doing a grueling job, and really, they just have the clear flaws of a Crown case.
“I don’t think anyone should think that there was a judicial error, that Ewen Macdonald, based on the evidence presented, was found not guilty.”
To date, no one has been convicted of Guy’s murder.
If the public will ever know who really killed Guy, Gallivan says, “I hope so. I have my theories about who he is and I think there was someone who was involved in the case, but was not persecuted. “
Gallivan hopes that people who watch Friend of the friendless it will take away some things.
“I hope they help you understand an amazing person: Greg King. I suspect a large part of New Zealand thinks Ewen Macdonald got his way.
“I think that’s what most people on the street would say: that was a case where he got off and he shouldn’t have.
“I hope people steer clear of this docu-drama, a reassessment of whatever assumptions they had made about Ewen Macdonald’s guilt.
“I don’t think I can ask for more than that… I hope they take away the fact that being a criminal defense attorney is much heavier than glamorous.
“What I mean by that is that being a criminal defense attorney is very hard work and one needs to be committed to the notion of justice and what is right, rather than just looking for a paycheck and trying to get the bad people.
“A lot of people in society think, ‘How can criminal defense lawyers sleep soundly at night for the things they do?’ I hope this shows that they actually work very, very hard and that they are driven by a sense of what is right and fair rather than the notion of money, ego or notoriety. “
Friend of the Friendless, TVNZ 1, Thursday October 15
