Lighter sentences for Maori offenders suggested
Lighter sentences should be considered for Maori offenders because of their “environment of deprivation”, Christchurch lawyer James Rapley is arguing in front of the Court of Appeal.
His appeal is for Fabian Jessie Mika, a 25-year-old Mongrel Mob member who has been jailed for six years nine months for manslaughter over a teenage passenger who was killed when Mika crashed a car during a police chase.
The Court of Appeal heard the submissions by video-link with Mr Rapley in Christchurch, and then discussed what one justice described as a radical proposal before reserving its decision.
At the sentencing in the High Court in Christchurch in September, Mr Rapley asked the court to take into account Mika’s cultural background to reduce the sentence, but it was ruled out by Justice David Gendall.
Mr Rapley said: “The court must and should recognise and acknowledge Mr Mika is Maori and as such has come from an environment of social deprivation. Further, his cultural background as a Maori may explain, and throw light on, the particular offence and the offender in that it may bear on his culpability, to the extent it may shed light on the level of moral blameworthiness.”
Justice Gendall said that the personal circumstances of offenders were always taken into account and offenders treated alike. “In my view, however, the law in this country is clear that no special discount for race, culture, or ethnicity matters alone is appropriate.”
Mr Rapley told the Court of Appeal that such considerations were now applied in Canada, and had been applied in Australia until recently.
The importance of cultural background was seen throughout the Sentencing Act, but the specific section had received only limited attention from judges.
District Court Judge Stephen O’Driscoll had recently discussed the issue, noting that Maori offenders made up a disproportionately large element within the prison population. Maori make up 15 percent of the general population, but 51 percent of the prison population.
For that reason, a section of the Criminal Justice Act 1985 had been introduced to encourage the use of availability of alternatives to imprisonment for Maori offenders.
He quoted from the decision that a sentencing court must “take into account the offender’s personal, family, whanau, community and cultural background” and consider dealing with the offender with a partly or wholly rehabilitative sentence.
The Sentencing Act had reinforced the need to address the shocking statistic of disproportionate Maori imprisonment, Mr Rapley said. New Zealand had the second highest imprisonment rate in the world, with an overrepresentation and disproportionate rate of Maori prisoners. “This has attracted comment from the United Nations and overseas media.”
Mika’s sentencing judge had erred in appearing to give precedence to the general desirability of consistency. In sentencing a Maori offender, the court must go further – as occurs in Canada for “aboriginal offenders” – and must take into account at sentencing the fact that the offender was Maori.
The court could acknowledge and accept that the cultural background of Maori has been historically one of social deprivation and inequality and at present it is a culture which is disproportionately incarcerated.
“Everyone recognises there has been a history of colonialism, displacement, high unemployment, lower educational attainment and high level of incarceration for Maori,” Mr Rapley said.
Mika has been involved with a gang from the age of 16, and since then had spent more time in jail than out of it. He has the word “Mobsta” tattooed right across his face is large letters.
He admitted the manslaughter charge and other offences, but disputed some of the details and evidence had to be heard before sentencing.
The crash on February 22 happened north of the Bromley sewage ponds at about 12.35am. Mika was driving the car he had stolen, hit road works, rolled the vehicle, then ran away.
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