KEY POINTS:
The Law Commission is to review whether juries should know about a defendant's previous convictions.
The issue has been put in the spotlight by the police rape trials, and Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday said she thought it "needs to be looked at".
"I think the debate over this trial means that inevitably that issue will have to be looked at - and the consequences of that are not clear cut," she said.
Last week it was revealed that former police officers Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton were convicted rapists already serving prison sentences when they stood trial for the kidnapping and indecent assault of a Rotorua woman in 1984.
The pair and Assistant Police Commissioner Clint Rickards were acquitted when that trial ended last week.
But when suppression orders in force during the case were lifted a public debate was triggered about whether the jury should have known about the previous convictions.
Law Commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer yesterday said he would be "delighted" to look into the matter.
"This is something of public moment, and it is of public concern," he said.
"There are long-established principles of the law. We would have to look at what the appropriate policy is and we will do that."
Helen Clark yesterday said most New Zealanders would have been shocked to hear about Shipton and Schollum's convictions.
She suggested to Newstalk ZB that one of the problems with the current arrangement was that some accused might paint themselves as family men in a trial.
When the full story came out after a not-guilty verdict people could feel uncomfortable.
But that needed to be balanced against the right of the person accused of a crime to a fair trial.
"That's a much more complex legal issue than I have the information to form an opinion about at this point," the Prime Minister said.
But she said the issue had been so controversial in recent days that "one feels almost bound to take the matter further".
