New Zealand To March Again in Wellington on Thursday 15th September

11th September 2016
On the 27th of June 2016, 36 organized marches and rallies took place all around New Zealand to protest the plea bargaining down of the murder charges to manslaughter for Tania Shailer and David Haerewa, who tortured and eventually killed 3 year old Moko Rangitoheriri in August 2015.

The marches were organized by the Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) in response to the public outrage at the plea bargaining, and the out pouring of support expressed on the Facebook page - Justice for Moko. This later became Stand up NZ - Justice for Moko.

SST’s Justice for Moko National Coordinator of the rallies and marches, Jayne Walker said "the support and enormous response was phenomenal, people from all over New Zealand (including Stewart Island) contacted us wanting to know what they could do”.

Thousands of people gathered all over the country to remember Moko and all the other babies and children who had lost their lives to murder and to express their disgust and outrage at the practice of plea bargaining. Walker said “the time and date were chosen to coincide with the time the killers were sentenced for manslaughter; not murder as we firmly believe they should have been”. This was murder and of the very worst kind.

The SST created the Justice for Moko petition calling on the Government to introduce a system under which a High Court Judge must approve any arrangement under which an originally laid charge alleging murder is replaced by a lesser charge, with the Judge empowered to order that a trial of the defendant(s) on the original charge proceed; and as a matter of urgency, make whatever law changes may be necessary to outlaw the practice of plea bargaining negotiations initiated by Crown Prosecutors.

Many thousands of signatures were collected on the day and many thousands more have been signed since.

"Now New Zealand it’s time for us to march again" says Walker "this time to deliver the petition to Parliament”.

Please join us to show your support! Be there on Thursday the 15th of September at Midland Park in Lambton Quay Wellington at 12pm, where we begin our march to Parliament.

Speakers will include Dennis O'Rourke - NZ First, Marama Fox - Maori Party, David Seymour - Act. There will also be representatives from the Green and Labour Parties.

It's time to stand up again New Zealand, we have a responsibility to tell the powers that be, that if you torture, violently attack and abuse a child, in our country and that child dies as a result of those injuries. It is murder not manslaughter!

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