The Supreme Court has rejected a plea from double murderer Lipene Sila for leave to appeal his conviction and sentence.
In June his appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Sila, 24, was sentenced last year to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 17 years, after Jane Young and Hannah Rossiter, both aged 16, were killed when he drove a car through a crowd of party-goers in Christchurch in May 2007.
He was also convicted on eight counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and ordered to serve his jail terms concurrently.
His lawyer Pip Hall told the Court of Appeal that Sila was not the aggressor, but was going to the defence of his brother when he himself was attacked.
The justices dismissed the argument that Sila's actions were self defence and he was in a "blind panic" after a bottle was thrown at him.
"(There is no) evidence to indicate it was a bottle throwing that induced Mr Sila to drive headlong into the group of people including Miss Young and Miss Rossiter," Justice Alan MacKenzie said in delivering the judgment.
Today, in dismissing Sila's application, the Supreme Court said that he had raised the ground that the trial judge should have permitted a defence of self-defence to go to the jury.
"The issue raised is factual: whether, assuming Mr Sila's actions were in self-defence, a reasonable jury could have concluded that the force he used was reasonable in the circumstances as he believed them to be.
"The Court of Appeal has reviewed the facts and decided no jury could so find.
"They were plainly correct," the Supreme Court said.
"No question of public or general importance exists and there is no appearance of any miscarriage of justice."
- NZPA
Convicted killer loses Supreme Court appeal
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