Craig Kapitan: NZ Herald Reporter on the jury beginning deliberations in the trial of Philip Polkinghorne

The eight week murder trial of Philip Polkinghorne is nearing a verdict, with the jury beginning deliberations this morning. 

The judge summed up the case yesterday. 

The Auckland eye surgeon's accused of killing his wife, Pauline Hanna; his defence argues she took her own life.  

Herald reporter Craig Kapitan told Ryan Bridge the jury only has two decisions - if it was murder or suicide. 

He says it likely won't be a quick decision, and if the jury need to deliberate past today, court won't sit tomorrow. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here in New Zealand. The fate of Philip Polkinghorn now
lies in a jury of eight women and three men.
We could have a verdict by today or in the
next couple of days. And the murder trial over the
death of his wife Pauline Hannah in twenty twenty one,
seven weeks eighty witnesses. The jury is out for deliberation
and Craig Capitana is with us. He's the New Zealand

(00:21):
Herald court reporter.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Craig. Good morning, morning, Ryan, how are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Thanks for being with me. What is this jury deciding on? Basically?
Is it essentially was this murder or was this suicide?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah? The councils this is a very binary decision. The facts,
the way the house was found. They really only have
two decisions. Is a murder of suicide.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Is and if there's a chance that this was suicide.
Are they not able to find Philip Polkinghorn guilty of murder?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, they do have a lesser charge they can they
can vote on, which is manslaughter. But that hasn't really
been discussed by the Crown or the defense and closing arguments.
Uh so that's more of a technicality really. I would
imagine there they will definitely be coming back with a

(01:18):
guilty or not guilty to murder it appears, and if
it's not guilty, there's a very good chance he'll be
walking out of the.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Courtroom, and that could be happening as early today. I mean,
it's a stupid question to ask, how long do you
deliver right for? How long is a pace of strength?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, it's anybody's guess, but if I had, if I
had guess, I'd say it's not gonna be quick. But
that comes with the caveat that I'm almost one hundred
percent wrong on these guesses, so who knows.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I appreciate honest.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, if they do go past today, court won't be
sitting tomorrow, so we'll stretch into week nine. If if
it takes more than to day.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Took us through the units versus majority voterict, what you
need to get and how that operates.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, they're gonna have to sit and work towards an
unanimous for quite a while. That's I think the minimum
is four hours, but usually it's much longer. If they
can't make a decision by then, the judge will give
them a direction that they can at some point they

(02:28):
can have a unanimous verdict instead, which only allows one
person to dissent. So we started out with twelve jurors,
but one juror was dismissed a couple of weeks ago
because this trial has run so long, so we have
eleven jurors. Now, technically we could have a ten to
one vote for guilty or not guilty and with the

(02:50):
good go, but that's going to be a little bit
down the track.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, And if that's not possible, then we get to
a hung jury and then we get to a potential retrial.
That way, we're in that territory.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes, don't remind me of that.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Craig, thank you very much for that. Great to understand
and talk through exactly what people can expect from this decision,
which we, as you say, may get today, may get
next week. Craig Capitan with US New Zealand Herald court
reporter covering the Polkinghorn trial. For more from News Talk
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(03:23):
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