Lesley Martin will not take stand in own defence

By JAMES GARDINER

Euthanasia advocate Lesley Jane Martin will not take the stand in her own defence, the jury in her High Court trial learned yesterday.

The jury was also told that Martin, 40, had declined a request by a prosecution witness, psychiatry professor Philip Michel Jose Brinded, to interview her before he gave evidence.

Martin has denied two counts of attempting to murder her terminally ill mother, Joy Patricia Martin, 69, in Wanganui five years ago.

After 11 days of evidence, the jury will today hear closing submissions from the prosecution and defence.

Despite an indication last week that a third defence witness would be called yesterday, Martin's lawyer, Dr Donald Stevens, QC, elected not to do so.

Instead, the jury heard rebuttal evidence called by Crown prosecutor Andrew Cameron from Professor Brinded, of the Christchurch Medical School.

Professor Brinded was asked about the process known in psychology as cognitive dissonance.

Last week, defence witness Professor Richard Owens, from the University of Wales, described cognitive dissonance as the process by which people's memory of events could be changed by conflicts in their own minds.

He said that in Martin's case her recollection of what occurred in the lead-up to her mother's death could have been altered by her views on euthanasia, which had changed since her mother's death.

Professor Brinded, however, said he understood cognitive dissonance affected behaviour and attitude but not memory.

He agreed with Dr Stevens he was not an expert in the field and had taken advice from a psychologist.

He also said he had no doubt Martin was subject to cognitive dissonance.

"My reading of the evidence would certainly suggest she was faced with significant conflicting thoughts."

He, like Professor Owens and the jury, had been given a copy of Martin's book, To Die Like A Dog, to read, but said it was no substitute for an actual examination of the author because it did not allow her to be questioned.

Martin was arrested in 2002 after she told police the book was a true account.

An autopsy found Joy Martin died of respiratory arrest, caused by either morphine or broncho-pneumonia. There was no evidence of suffocation.