KEY POINTS:
The family of Jillian Thomas, whose husband was found guilty of her murder in 1999, is upset about a television programme debating the murder trial.
TV3's Inside New Zealand: What's Your Verdict? which airs tonight, will use a hand-picked jury to consider evidence in the case of former Selwyn District Council manager, Kevin Harmer.
Ms Thomas's body was found in the couple's burnt-out Land Rover on their Dunsandel farm.
During the subsequent trial, the Crown said Harmer was motivated by greed and his infatuation for an escort he met in Wellington while on business months before his wife's death.
Harmer was sentenced in 2002 to life with a minimum non-parole period of 14 years for Thomas's murder.
The police officer in charge of the inquiry, Detective Sergeant Ken Legat, told The Press newspaper the documentary was nothing more than "infotainment".
"Police do not believe that a programme of this type, which takes 40 minutes commercial air time, could possibly set out the case or debate the issues clearly," he told the paper.
A letter was sent to Ms Thomas's family from the production house that said the programme would be aired and it "may be disturbing" and that sensitive material would be shown, Mr Legat said.
Ms Thomas's parents said they had nothing to say about the programme.
"We would not have anything to do with it."
Ms Thomas's sister said the family was not happy about the programme being aired.
"We don't really like it, but what can we do about it? We don't want to bring it up again. It's just never-ending," she said.
Harmer's wife, the former escort, who cannot be named because of a court order, said yesterday that the family hoped the documentary would raise the profile of Harmer's case and "open people's eyes to what the real story is".
"We were really quite intrigued because we had seen a pilot on Mark Lundy and they really seemed to have an unbiased approach," she said.
Inside New Zealand producer Alex Clark said the programme encouraged "necessary debate about the criminal justice system and, in particular, the role of the jury".
"We are not seeking to make any statement about the merits of any of the cases," he said.
- NZPA
