Australian white supremacist killer, Brenton Tarrant, has failed in his bid to overturn his conviction and sentence for the 2019 killing of 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand, according to court documents.
On Thursday, the New Zealand Court of Appeal dismissed Tarrant’s appeal, describing his attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in the country’s deadliest mass shooting as “utterly devoid of merit”.
The 35-year-old had earlier admitted responsibility for the attack before receiving a life sentence in August 2020.
Tarrant filed the appeal in February, arguing that what he described as “torturous and inhumane” prison conditions during his trial prevented him from making rational decisions when he pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one terrorism charge linked to the 2019 attack.
He is currently serving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the killings at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch on March 15, 2019. The attack, which targeted men, women, children and elderly worshippers, was livestreamed for 17 minutes and preceded by an online manifesto.
Local outlet The Post reported that the three-member appellate panel examined two central issues, including Tarrant’s mental state at the time of his plea and whether the plea was made voluntarily.
In their ruling, the judges rejected his claims, stating that they did “not accept Mr Tarrant’s evidence about his mental state”.
“There were inconsistencies in Mr Tarrant’s own evidence, and his evidence is at odds with the detailed observations of prison authorities and the assessments of mental health professionals at the time of him entering his pleas,” the judges said.
The court concluded that the guilty plea was made voluntarily and without coercion.
“The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that he was not suffering any significant psychological impacts as a result of his prison conditions at the time he pleaded guilty,” the court said.
“The facts concerning Mr Tarrant’s offending are beyond dispute. He has not identified any arguable defence, or indeed any defence known to the law.”
Legal representatives for survivors and families of the victims told national broadcaster RNZ that the ruling brought a sense of relief.
“The families, and frankly all of us, will be spared the trauma of reliving the 15th of March all over again in a trial,” they said.
“It is a huge relief that the difficult and often unsupported journey families are on will not now be added to by the great burden of a new trial. It would have been unimaginably traumatic.”
