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Brenton Tarrant, who allegedly opened fire in two mosques in New Zealand while live-streaming the killing of 51 and wounding of 40 others on March 15, 2019, was subject to inhuman and degrading treatment in jail, prompting him to plead guilty under duress, his attorney, Tony Ellis, said on Monday.
Tarrant is known as a white supremacist and live-streamed the attacks on Facebook, and after his arrest, he told officers he planned to attack one more mosque and burn down all three after the shootings and wished he had done so, the Associated Press reported.
Last year, Tarrant pleaded guilty to all charges—51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism—and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the harshest sentence given out in New Zealand.
Tarrant told his lawyer that his treatment in jail affected his "will to carry on" and had decided the simplest way out was to plead guilty, local media outlet RNZ reported.
New Zealand's chief coroner, Judge Deborah Marshall, recently began a new investigation on the attack after pleas from families called for more answers, according to The New York Times.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The lawyer's memo was not immediately made publicly available Monday. Ellis said the gunman had authorized him to discuss the case with only two local media outlets, RNZ and Stuff.
The coroner's office did not immediately release a copy of the memo, referring requests back to Ellis. But the coroner's office did not dispute the memo's existence or the characterization of it by the media outlets.
RNZ reported that Ellis had advised his client to appeal his sentence and convictions on the basis that his rights had been breached, and that Tarrant was considering such an appeal.
Ellis said the gunman was held in solitary confinement for much of the time while awaiting his trial and lacked proper access to lawyers, information and documentation about his case.
The memo came after Marshall's office last month opened an inquiry into the deaths of the victims, the latest in a series of probes into the attacks.
Rosemary Omar, whose 24-year-old son Tariq was gunned down at Al Noor mosque, told RNZ that the gunman's claims were nothing more than him seeking further attention.
