A CAPITAL ARGUMENT

The jury deliberated for only one hour yesterday before returning a guilty verdict for murder against Leigh Robinson. One hour.  And the jury did not know, could not know by law, that Robinson had murdered before. That forty years ago he had stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death and badly injured her boyfriend who tried to save her in her home.

Robinson had been convicted of the brutal murder of 17-year-old Valerie Dunn and sentenced to hang.

The Governor commuted the sentence to thirty years with a minimum of twenty but Robinson served only 15 According to an eight-page investigative story by Russell Robinson in the Herald Sun Valerie Dunn was stabbed twice in the front and 14 times in the back.

Our 3AW court reporter Phil Johnson anticipated the obvious question on my program yesterday: If Robinson had hanged, his second victim, Tracey Greenbury, would be  alive today.

Supporters of the death penalty see this is another example of the need to bring back capital punishment. But even if you are opposed to the death penalty you should still question how this man with a such a history of violent crime  was still out on the streets.

He had other convictions for rape and assault.  He should have still been inside.  And, on the original murder charge, a man sentenced to hang should not have been released after only 15 years.  That made a mockery out of the original judge’s sentence.

After having his death sentence commuted he should have been charged with the attempted murder of Valerie Dunn’s brave boyfriend, Des Grewar who tried to save her.

Postscript: The Herald Sun ran a readers’ poll asking if Victoria should bring back the death penalty. The result was YES 83%. NO: 17%

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009