After more than 12 years spent between the walls of a Northern Territory prison, a man who was sentenced to life for a murder he wasn’t there for has been released on parole.
In 2013, Zak Grieve was handed a life sentence, with a non-parole period of 20 years.
The sentence was cut by eight years following a successful mercy plea in 2018.
The judge who sentenced Grieve to life also accepted that the Aboriginal man had pulled out of the plot to kill Ray Niceforo in 2011, and was not present when the murder took place.
However, because he failed to stop the murder going ahead, he was still found guilty of murder for his involvement.
And because of the NT’s mandatory sentencing regime, the judge had no choice but to sentence him to at least 20 years’ prison.
Grieve was 19 when he was imprisoned alongside two other men over Niceforo’s murder.
Read full article on ABC news here
Read the petition here
Why mandatory sentencing is appalling: Very proud to have helped this young Indigenous man…originally instructed by an Indigenous lawyer and later we secured a successful mercy petition thx to my team and the excellent law clinic @DeakinLaw read here https://t.co/2dCl0kn0Ow and… pic.twitter.com/CFHBFN95sh
— Dr Felicity Gerry KC (@felicitygerry) October 27, 2023
