New Zealand mosque shooter may appeal conviction and life imprisonment, lawyer says

Australian Brenton Tarrant was subject to inhumane and degrading treatment in jail, prompting him to plead guilty under duress, his lawyer wrote in a memo to the chief coroner.

The gunman who killed 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, is considering appealing his convictions and prison sentence, his lawyer said Monday.

Australian Brenton Tarrant was subject to inhumane and degrading treatment in jail, prompting him to plead guilty under duress, lawyer Tony Ellis wrote in a memo to the chief coroner.

Tarrant, a white supremacist, livestreamed the 2019 attacks on Facebook. It was the worst atrocity in New Zealand’s modern history and prompted lawmakers to swiftly ban the deadliest types of semiautomatic weapons.

Last year before his trial was due to begin, Tarrant pleaded guilty to all charges, including 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the toughest sentence available in New Zealand.

The lawyer’s memo was not immediately made publicly available Monday. Ellis said the gunman had authorized him to discuss the case with only two local media outlets, RNZ and Stuff.

The coroner’s office did not immediately release a copy of the memo, referring requests back to Ellis. But the coroner’s office did not dispute the memo’s existence or the characterization of it by the media outlets.

RNZ reported that Ellis had advised his client to appeal his sentence and convictions on the basis that his rights had been breached, and that Tarrant was considering such an appeal.

Ellis said the gunman was held in solitary confinement for much of the time while awaiting his trial and lacked proper access to lawyers, information and documentation about his case.