Padraig Nally
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Padraig Nally is an Irish farmer living in County Mayo. In November 2005 he was sentenced to 6 years in jail for the manslaughter of John Ward, a member of the travelling community. His conviction was quashed in October 2006 and, in December 2006, he was found not guilty of manslaughter.
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[edit] Facts of the Case and First Trial
Nally arrived at his farmhouse on the afternoon of October 14, 2004 when he saw a car parked beside an overgrown lane next to his house with a man sitting in the driver`s seat. The man was Ward's son, Tom. Tom Ward testified that he and his father used to buy old cars, fix them up and sell them. He said that morning he went with his father to the hospital where he was a daycare patient. He said they later took a spin down by Mr Nally's house, his father spotted an old car, they reversed into the drive and the John Ward went in to knock on the door to see if the owner was in. He said Nally approached the car saying: "Who's gone in there?" Tom Ward maintained that he told him his father was gone in to see about the car. According to Tom Ward, Nally replied: "He won't be coming out alive."
Nally got a gun from the shed and, as he confronted him at the back door, shot Ward in the side. Nally then beat Ward repeatedly with a stick. As Ward was trying to leave the property, Nally went back to the shed, reloaded his shotgun, went back to Nally, and fired a second, fatal, shot at Ward.
Garda sergeant James Carroll, one of the first officers on the scene, told the court there was no forensic evidence to show that Ward had been in Nally's house.
During the first trial, the court heard that Nally had become increasingly agitated and worried that his property would be targeted by local thieves as a number of farms in the area had recently been burgled. His own home had been broken into in 2003 and a chainsaw stolen from one of his sheds in February 2004. Friends and neighbours noted Nally had become preoccupied with looking after his farm and terrified that the robbers would return.
Nally pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges. He was acquitted of murder, but convicted of manslaughter. The judge, Mr Justice Paul Carney, refused to allow the jury to consider a full defence argument of self-defence.
Sentencing Nally to six years for the manslaughter conviction, Mr Justice Paul Carney said: "This is undoubtedly the most socially divisive case I have had to try. It is also the most difficult one in which I have had to impose sentence." [1]
[edit] Appeal and Conviction Quashed
Nally was refused leave to appeal by the Central Criminal Court against his conviction and six-year jail sentence.
The case was then appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal. Nally's lawyers had argued at his appeal that the trial judge had erred in law by not allowing the jury to consider a defence of full self-defence and by not allowing it to find Nally not guilty. He had directed that the jury had to find Nally guilty of murder or guilty of manslaughter, and ruled that an acquittal verdict based on the evidence would be perverse.
In October 2006, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed Padraig Nally's conviction for manslaughter and ordered a retrial. The Court said that the jury should not have been denied the opportunity to return a verdict of not guilty, even if such a verdict may have flown in the face of the evidence.
[edit] Retrial
Padraig Nally's retrial took place in December 2006. Similar evidence was submitted to the court, including evidence of Ward's character and previous convictions and both Nally's and Ward's mental states on the day in question.
The jury of eight men and four women acquitted Nally of manslaughter and he walked free.
[edit] Controversy
The Padraig Nally case has been enormously divisive in Ireland, with many people supporting Padraig Nally and his actions to defend the perceived risk to his person and property, and other people maintaining that the his actions were far in excess of what was necessary to successfully maintain a defence of self defence.
In addition, the travelling community make the claim that, had Nally been a member of the travelling community and Ward been a member of the settled community, a different verdict may have been returned (see external links, below.)
