NZ Court of Appeal Upholds Tarrant Christchurch Convictions

New Zealand's Court of Appeal dismissed Brenton Tarrant's bid to overturn his convictions on Thursday, upholding his life sentence without parole for the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings that killed 51 people and injured dozens more.

The 35-year-old Australian attacked the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre on March 15, 2019, during Friday prayers, using semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and incendiary devices. He killed 51 worshippers in just over 15 minutes and livestreamed the assault while publishing a document outlining his views online. Tarrant initially pleaded not guilty in June 2019 to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism. He changed his pleas to guilty in March 2020 and was sentenced in August that year to life imprisonment without the possibility of release.

Tarrant filed his appeal notice 505 days past the 20-working-day deadline, seeking court permission to proceed out of time. During a five-day hearing in February, he argued that prison conditions had left him irrational, rendering his guilty pleas involuntary. He claimed to have been forced into the admissions and sought to vacate them for a trial. A week after the...