[ad_1]
Supplied
Peter Beckett, a former Napier councilor, was charged with murdering his wife in Canada.
The conviction of a former local Hawke’s Bay politician accused of murdering his wife was overturned.
In September 2017, Peter Beckett, who was once a Napier city councilor, was found guilty of the first degree murder of his wife following a jury trial in Canada.
Beckett was convicted of drowning his wife, Laura Letts-Beckett, in Upper Arrow Lake in August 2010, and was sentenced to an automatic life sentence with a minimum period of non-parole of 25 years.
READ MORE:
* Former Napier City Councilor Peter Beckett, convicted of murdering his wife
* Peter Beckett: the mountain man who bit off more than he could chew
* Former Napier City Councilman Peter Beckett Faces New Murder Trial After Jury Hanged
* The jury is still out on the murder case of the former Napier counselor.
On Tuesday, the British Columbia Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, due to mistakes made by Judge Alison Beames and Crown prosecutors during the trial. Castanet reported.
Judge Lauri Ann Fenlon said during her ruling that Judge Beames was wrong to admit certain evidence during the trial, such as “evidence of inherently unreliable behavior,” that is, how a defendant acted during an event.
Judge Fenlon said he “invited the jury to engage in undue speculation.”
Stuff
Murder victim Laura Letts-Beckett, wife of Peter Beckett. Beckett has always denied that he was responsible for her death.
It was ruled that Judge Beames incorrectly instructed the jury that they could rely on the evidence that Beckett had fabricated his story to the police as evidence, without independent evidence that his story had been fabricated.
“Before the Crown can invite the jury to use their disbelief in the statement as evidence against the defendant, it must show, by a different body of evidence, that the statement was intentionally fabricated by the defendant,” Judge Fenlon said.
Letts-Beckett, a Canadian, drowned while the couple boated in Arrow Lakes Provincial Park in the Rocky Mountains.
Beckett, who left New Zealand with his wife in 2002, always denied being responsible for her death.
The Court of Appeal also found that the Crown’s final submissions to the jury included “unproven facts”, Castanet He said.
The Court of Appeal had ordered a new trial, in lieu of the full acquittal requested by Beckett.
Whether the retrial would actually take place was in the hands of the Crown.
