Prosecutors to appeal Zach Rolfe decision to the High Court

Prosecutors in the murder trial of NT Police officer Zach Rolfe will apply for proceedings to be stayed pending an appeal to the High Court of Australia.

• Zach Rolfe murder trial put on hold again after snap lockdown
• Jury to rule on whether Zach Rolfe is excused from criminal liability in fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker

PROSECUTORS in the murder trial of NT Police officer Zach Rolfe will apply for proceedings to be stayed pending an appeal to the High Court of Australia.

Rolfe has pleaded not guilty to murdering 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker in a police shooting in Yuendumu in 2019.

The full bench of the NT Supreme Court last week ruled an immunity provision in the Police Administration Act could be put to the jury in the trial now due to start next Monday.

But late on Tuesday it was announced the Crown would apply to the High Court for special leave to appeal the Full Court’s ruling.

Section 148B of the act excuses police officers from criminal responsibility for acts done “in good faith” during the performance of their duties.

Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC had argued that if Rolfe was acting in defence of himself or a colleague, he was no longer exercising the police power of arrest.

But in their joint decision, Justices Stephen Southwood and Dean Mildren ruled there was nothing in the act “to prevent a police officer from exercising multiple powers and performing multiple functions during the course of a single incident”.

“The Crown’s submissions overlook the fact that at the relevant time the defendant may have been exercising his power of arrest and simultaneously performing his functions of preventing an offence and protecting the life of Constable (Adam) Eberl,” they wrote.

“It may be that when he fired the second and third shots the defendant was intending to both arrest the deceased and defend Constable Eberl.

“It would be open to the defendant, if he gives evidence, to state as much.”

Mr Strickland is set to make the stay application after the NT’s current three day lockdown is due to end on Thursday afternoon.

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