A New Zealand appeals court has rejected a bid by the white supremacist who killed 51 Muslims in the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks to abandon his guilty pleas. The Court of Appeal panel of three judges dismissed Brenton Tarrant's claim that harsh prison conditions forced him into an involuntary admission of guilt for the terrorism, murder, and attempted murder charges he faced.
Background of the Attack
Tarrant, an Australian national now aged 35, murdered 51 worshippers and injured dozens more in March 2019. He drove to two Christchurch mosques and opened fire with semiautomatic weapons during Friday prayers. His guilty pleas in March 2020 brought relief to bereaved families and survivors, who dreaded a lengthy trial and feared he would use it to broadcast his hateful views.
Appeal Dismissed
The court noted that Tarrant's appeal was filed 505 days after the legal deadline. During a five-day hearing in February, Tarrant argued that his guilty pleas were provoked by 'irrationality' due to poor mental health, which he claimed caused him to temporarily abandon his racist views. However, the judges concluded that his claims of mental illness were inconsistent and unsupported by prison staff, mental health professionals, or his former lawyers.
'He was not suffering from a mental impairment or any other form of mental incapacity which rendered him unable to voluntarily change his pleas to guilty,' the judges wrote. 'He endeavoured to mislead us about his state of mind in a weak attempt to advance an appeal in circumstances where all other evidence demonstrated that he made an informed and totally rational decision to plead guilty.'
Attempt to Abandon Appeal
The ruling also revealed that Tarrant sought to abandon his appeal shortly after making his case in February. The judges rejected that bid, stating that the case was 'of significant public interest and should be finally determined.' They suggested Tarrant 'began to form the opinion that the hearing was not proceeding in his favor, and as a result decided to file a notice of abandonment after the hearing concluded.' Under New Zealand law, judges are not required to allow an appellant to quit an appeal once it is underway.
Life Sentence
Tarrant remains in Auckland Prison, where he was sentenced in August 2020 to life imprisonment without parole. The judges allowed him to abandon his appeal against that sentence, which was scheduled to be heard later in 2026. Tarrant moved to New Zealand in 2017 with a plan to commit a mass shooting, amassing a cache of weapons and conducting reconnaissance of the attack sites.
The appeal court judges noted that Tarrant had accepted the summary of facts presented by police and the sentencing judge, and that the case against him was 'overwhelming.' Evidence included footage of the attack that Tarrant filmed and livestreamed, showing his face, and a document outlining his racist views published online under his real name.
