Mercy not strain'd

Mercy was horribly absent in the recent case of the “suitcase murders”, so-called because Auckland woman Hakyung Lee killed her two young children and placed their bodies inside airtight orange suitcases, leaving them to mummify in a storage locker for four years until they were discovered. I attended the trial (Listener, October 11 & 18) and returned for the sentencing at the High Court at Auckland in the Christmas season.

- Steve Braunias

Mercy was remote. Crown prosecutors suggested the murders were premeditated. Her defence argued for insanity. The jury had reached a guilty verdict in three hours. At sentencing, just as she was at trial, Lee stood with her head bowed, her face covered by her long hair, and said nothing. Justice Venning asked, “Have you anything to say as to why the sentence of this court should not be passed upon you?” She was as mute as stone, although she had in fact authored a massive stack of papers in her pre-sentence submissions.