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Speaker 1: Not guilty. Pulkinghorn walked free from court yesterday quittive murdering

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Speaker 1: his wife Pauline Hannah. Finally a verdict. Roderick Mullgan is

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Speaker 1: a criminal defense lawyer. He's with US Live this morning. Roderick,

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Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning. Were you surprised at that verdict? No?

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Speaker 1: Why not?

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Speaker 2: I think many people saw that coming. But the thing

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Speaker 2: about criminal justice, as we all know, is doubt. So

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Speaker 2: if there's doubt, you've got to have an acquittal. And

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Speaker 2: even though many people were suspicious, did he really do it?

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Speaker 2: It's just not enough. It is a high bar. It

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Speaker 2: is difficult to convict people on circumstantial evidence. And as

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Speaker 2: judges are saying the juries all the time, even if

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Speaker 2: you think it's likely somebody did it, that's not enough.

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Speaker 2: You've got to be sure, and you just can't be

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Speaker 2: sure of that evidence.

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Speaker 1: Most of the jury clearly didn't think it was suicide,

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Speaker 1: because they said as much in their question to the judge.

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Speaker 1: What happens now with the cogner? What if the coroner

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Speaker 1: rules that it's not suicide.

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Speaker 2: The coroner has a different standard of evidence. The coroner's

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Speaker 2: inquiry is balance of probabilities. What's more, likely, so it's

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Speaker 2: not a criminal inquiry. So the coroner is free to

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Speaker 2: come to a different conclusion if they think the evidence

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Speaker 2: merits it. So you can have the jury saying, well,

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Speaker 2: there's some doubt about whether it was further, and you

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Speaker 2: have the coroner saying it's likely to be murdered, and

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Speaker 2: those two things can sit side by side because they're

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Speaker 2: answering the question to two different levels.

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Speaker 1: What would require, what would be required for a retrial?

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Speaker 1: More evidence, new evidence?

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Speaker 2: What a trial is big and as complex and as

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Speaker 2: thorough as this, a new trial could only happen if

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Speaker 2: there was very, very substantial new evidence, and it just

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Speaker 2: doesn't exist because everything here is circumstantial. Interesting, There was

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Speaker 2: never an eyewitness, there was never a photograph, there was

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Speaker 2: never a fingerprint. So it's not going to.

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Speaker 1: Happen to your mind, Polkinghorn is a free man for good. Yes,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for your time, Roderic Mulgan.

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Speaker 2: For more from News Talks, there'd be listen live on

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Speaker 2: air or online and keep our shows with you wherever

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