REX Haig's case "represents one of the great injustices in New Zealand's legal history," according to Wellington lawyer Keith Jefferies.

Now readers have the opportunity to hear the story from the point of view of the victim of that injustice, thanks to the work of another Wellington lawyer, Rennie Gould.

Rough Justice – The Rex Haigh Story was launched on 9 July in Christchurch.

When Rex Haigh was arrested for murder in 1994, Rennie remembers seeing it on television "and I just remember a 'there's something wrong here' feeling. It didn't seem right to me". That began a series of events that would culminate in the book being published.

She followed the trial and the first appeal via the media. As a criminal lawyer, she decided to go along to watch the second Court of Appeal consider the case and Keith Jefferies (who had been Rex's first Court of Appeal counsel) introduced her to Rex.

By this time, he was out of jail, having spent 10 years inside for the murder of Mark Roderique, a killing he had not committed and a conviction the Court of Appeal was about to quash.

"I said to Keith 'he should write a book' and Keith said 'he has, but he needs some help with it'." That sparked a process that would see Rex and Rennie co-author what would become Rough Justice (and Rennie is careful to emphasise that it is co-authorship, and not her as a "ghost writer").

Rennie offered to work on Rex's extensive manuscripts, and Rex accepted. She went through all the papers, editing and chronicling Rex's long struggle for justice.

In crafting the story, Rennie deliberately kept Rex's own words, ensuring it was very much Rex's story being told. But it was an extensive task ordering, condensing and shaping the work into chapters.

When Longacre agreed to publish it, her task then included working with the publisher on the revision process.

Rennie has also written a chapter, asking a key question "why was Rex Haig convicted?" And, on the evidence, that is still one big question about the case.

But that is not the only concern the co-author has. As a criminal lawyer, she considers New Zealand's criminal justice system "may well be in need of an overhaul".

"A Criminal Cases Review Commission, as recommended by Sir Thomas Thorp, would also go a long way to putting these injustices right," she says.

"When justice goes wrong like this, it should be possible to turn it around quickly. It shouldn't take 10 or 12 years."

Although there is the Court of Appeal, Rennie points to just some of the problems with the current appeal system, including the fact that the Court of Appeal has no investigative function, reluctance to overturn a jury verdict and, at least in Rex Haig's case, lack of legal aid funding.

Back in 1996 when Rex Haig's first appeal hearing took place, legal aid was routinely declined, even for murder conviction appeals, if the Court of Appeal judges were of the view there was little or no substance to the appeal. (The Privy Council later upbraided the Court of Appeal for this and the practice stopped.)

And in this case, the first Court of Appeal allowed a verdict to stand and an innocent person serve a life sentence.

Perhaps even more important than a rapid review when justice has gone wrong is the need for a review before a matter even gets to trial, Rennie says.

"There needs to be someone independent of the police reviewing the case." In fact, following the police investigation of the Mark Roderique murder, Rennie doubts whether Rex Haigh should have ever been charged. "According to private investigator Bryan Rowe, there was a case against his nephew, David Hogan, staring police in the face from the outset."

This was something the second Court of Appeal also recognised and the final sentence of Rough Justice quotes the judges as saying "the reality is that the new evidence casts major doubt on the reliability of Hogan's evidence and, as well, provides an evidential basis for the proposition that Hogan murdered the deceased."

Rennie also considers that New Zealand should look at the European system and possibly incorporate parts of it. She points out that the European system achieves a 95% conviction rate "because they are weeding out the innocent" before the legal proceedings.

In contrast, in New Zealand too many innocent people are convicted while many are also acquitted of crimes the evidence indicates that they have committed.

Concerned as she is about the need to right injustice and right it rapidly, Rennie has an even bigger concern – crime prevention.

"It seems to me that as far as justice is concerned, we are spending money in all the wrong places.

"I've got really strong ideas about crime prevention and I would like to express them. It all stems from social problems but it is very frustrating being in the system and seeing that nothing is being done about these problems.

"My next book will be about crime prevention," she says.

Rough Justice – The Rex Haigh Story by Rex Haig and Rennie Gould, published by Longacre Press, 2008, has an ISBN 978 1 877460 02 9.