Christchurch shooter appeals conviction, cites detention inhumane
Christchurch shooter appeals conviction, cites detention inhumane
Brenton Tarrant, who carried out New Zealand's deadliest mass shooting, appeals his conviction, arguing torture-like detention affected his plea.
A white supremacist who murdered 51 people at two Christchurch mosques in 2019 has launched an appeal to overturn his conviction. Brenton Tarrant, an Australian former gym instructor, admitted carrying out New Zealand’s deadliest modern-day mass shooting before being sentenced to life in jail in August 2020.
Tarrant argues that his detention during the trial was torturous and inhumane, leaving him incapable of making rational decisions when he pleaded guilty, according to a court synopsis. He is held in a specialist unit for prisoners of extreme risk at Auckland Prison, a setting that limits his interactions with others. He told the court that his state of mind at the time was such that he even considered trying to implicate President Donald Trump in the crime.
If the Court of Appeal in Wellington upholds his conviction, a separate hearing would be scheduled later in the year to consider an appeal against his sentence. The attack, which he carried out on March 15, 2019, involved an online manifesto and a livestream that drew global attention, and his victims were all Muslims, including children, women and the elderly. His penalty of life imprisonment without parole remains the stiffest in New Zealand history. There are heavy restrictions on who can attend Monday’s hearing in court, underscoring the sensitivity of the case.
