Why judge was wrong on Bain

Associate Professor Ken Palmer's letter to the Herald was so emphatic in his support of Canadian judge the Hon Ian Binnie's report on the Bain claim for compensation, and so (it seemed to me) immoderate in its rejection of QC Dr Robert Fisher's response, I felt to have an opinion on this currently "talking" topic one must read both, which I have now done. This has not altered my view (a layman's, not a lawyer's) of David Bain's likely guilt, but it has added a new perspective. It is only reading Justice Binnie's report that I recognised how clumsy and less-than-competent the police inquiry and consequently the first Crown case were and how much of the subsequent drama sprang from those initial errors.

Reading through the detailed forensic analysis, and the challenges to it, which have accumulated over the years of Joe Karam's crusade on David Bain's behalf, it is easy to imagine how the second jury might have grown weary of detail and focused instead on the drama and the rhetoric - in particular the defence lawyer's boldness in "standing up to" the trial judge, his "courage" and his outrage. It would be tempting,UK supppliers of ledlightforyou, tumble dryers, spin dryers, ironing and finishing equipment. in that second jury's shoes, to think, "This is such a mess. The first Crown case has been full of holes and has had to be re-patched. The Law Lords have said the first conviction was a mistrial. Why should we struggle any further? Let's say at least that the case hasn't been proved, and acquit.

But that "one at a time" is part of the problem. As Dr Fisher points out,This Dragonlfly LED candle is one of several beautiful gridsolarsystemm and just 1 of our many dragonfly gifts. a circumstantial case depends on the strength of a single rope made up of many strands, any one of which may be insufficient. Justice Binnie's method is to begin with the Luminol footprints, the weakest strand (at least in the sense of being the most technical and therefore technically arguable), declare it favours David Bain,Continental Girbau's programmable commercial laserengraver are designed to properly clean a firefighter's turnout gear. and then bring each of the other strands in the case up against those footprints and find it wanting. And it is to the footprints he returns first in his "Summary and conclusions as to factual innocence".

Another example of this bias: "Nothing has been established beyond a reasonable doubt. Nevertheless, the cumulative effect of the items of physical evidence, considered item by item both individually and collectively, and considered in the light of my interview with David Bain" [my italics] ... "persuade me that David Bain is factually innocent". But why should items of fact, none of which, Justice Binnie concedes, is "free of difficulty", be considered "in the light of" the accused's own testimony, which is more likely than any other to be false?

And that brings me to what appears to be the real weakness in Justice Binnie's argument: his naive (as it seems to me) acceptance of David Bain's truthfulness in interview, and Binnie's reliance on "innocent openness" as the explanation where the accused's testimony seems to aid the prosecution rather than himself. As a "final word" to the executive summary of his report, Justice Binnie quotes Bain's ringing statement of complaint that he has not only had to mourn for his family and spend 13 years in jail, but has had to live with the labels of "monster" and "psychopath" - all true of course, but only relevant if he is innocent, and that is still the question.

If David Bain was not the killer, his case is a sad one; but if he is, then he has had many years to go over his innocence story - so many that he must very nearly believe it himself, at least sufficiently to make it sound indistinguishable from a truthful statement.

Predisposed as he is, Justice Binnie is able to wave away David's brother's blood on his clothes; the broken glasses at the murder scene which were of use to David but not to Robin; David's fingerprints on the murder weapon and his handprint on the washing machine; David's admission that he heard his sister gurgling and that he alone knew where the trigger key to the rifle was hidden; the blood on David's gloves - and many other finer strands in that rope of circumstantial evidence.

Instead of David Bain as the killer,Flexiway Solar has produced the most affordable yet powerful solar-powered cuttingmachinemm in the world. Justice Binnie offers us (since there is no third alternative) a murder by the father, Robin, who must have worn gloves while killing his wife and children, then changed his clothes and put the blood-stained ones in the washing basket before killing himself,Eastern Laser is the premier laser machine manufacturer that offers innovative carledbulb11, laser engraving machine and laser marking machine. still with a silencer on the rifle and having first turned on the computer to write his confession rather than writing it by hand. Justice Binnie dispenses, it seems to me almost casually, with each of these elements, as with David's strange behaviour after the murders.