NSW: Government rules out legislating to stop Baker s release

AAP General News (Australia)
08-08-2000
NSW: Government rules out legislating to stop Baker s release

SYDNEY, Aug 8 AAP - The New South Wales Government has ruled out considering legislation
to prevent convicted murderer Allan Baker being released from jail.

Mr Carr said it was legally impossible for parliament to become involved in the matter
- despite opposition attempts to try to introduce legislation for the third time.

In knocking the attempt on the head, Mr Carr referred to his government's failure to
keep another convicted killer, Gregory Wayne Kable, behind bars.

"Parliament can't convict someone," he told reporters.

"As much as we'd like from time to time to convict someone who's by all accounts guilty,
by passing an act of parliament, the law in the English speaking world says parliament
can't do that.

"When parliament attempted to do that in the Kable case, the law was struck down by
the highest court in the land."

Legislation introduced by the Carr government in its first term to keep Kable in prison
beyond the length of his sentence was struck down by the High Court on the grounds it
was unconstitutional.

Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski yesterday said she had received legal advice that
the bill to keep Baker in jail was constitutional and valid and did not interfere with
court proceedings.

However Mr Carr said his advice from the crown solicitor and the attorney general was
to leave the matter to the courts.

Baker, 52, and co-accused Kevin Crump were each sentenced to two life sentences for
the murder of Ian Lamb on November 4, 1973, and for conspiring to murder Virginia Morse
on November 7, 1973.

Mr Lamb was shot in the neck while sitting in his car when Baker and Crump stopped
to rob him of $20.

Mrs Morse was killed in Queensland after being abducted and raped by both men when
they ransacked her home in western NSW after her husband, Brian, and children had left
for the day.

Applying for a redetermination of his sentence in the NSW Supreme Court on June 30
this year, Baker said sorry for the rape and execution-style killing of the mother-of-three
Virginia Morse nearly 27 years ago.

If successful, Baker could be eligible for parole.

AAP jw/ah/cjh/bwl

KEYWORD: BAKER (CARRIED EARLIER)

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