A lawyer for Graeme Burton says he did not intend to kill a fellow prison inmate when he attacked him with a weapon late last year.
Burton, 38, is on trial in the High Court at Auckland charged with attempting to murder Dwayne Marsh at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo on December 20 last year.
Marsh was stabbed several times, including three times in the chest, in the attack. He subsequently required emergency surgery at Auckland Hospital.
The Crown said Burton stabbed him with a stainless steel rod sharpened at one end which was found in his cell the next day.
Security camera footage of the confrontation was played to the jury yesterday, and Burton's lawyer Peter Tomlinson said his client admitted attacking Marsh.
However, Mr Tomlinson said this did not mean Burton intended to kill Marsh.
Mr Tomlinson said prison was a dangerous place where there were violent confrontations and it was not surprising many inmates had weapons.
He said Burton may have intended to injure Marsh, and may have intended to cause him serious harm, but that he did not intend to kill him.
Mr Tomlinson said the video footage showed Burton stopped his physical attack on Marsh before the latter was pulled away by guards.
He said Burton would not have expected he would have caused potentially fatal injuries when he stopped as Marsh was still standing at the time.
"If you intend to kill someone, do you stop at that time? I suggest not."
Mr Tomlinson described the attack on Marsh as "somewhat haphazard" and that Burton was flailing.
The fact that the wounds on Marsh were on many parts of his body and not just in the chest and heart area suggested he had not intended to kill him.
Mr Tomlinson told jurors that if they thought that there was a reasonable possibility that Burton's intention fell short of the intention to kill, then they had to acquit him.
He also said the fact Burton was a prisoner with a history meant nothing, and it was important to decide on his guilt without prejudice and solely on the evidence before them.
Crown lawyer Deb Bell took a different view of the end of the confrontation, saying that the attack only ended when guards pulled Marsh away from the landing where the attack occurred.
She said it was not a spur of the moment attack and that the blows to the chest suggested an intention to kill.
The jury will retire to consider their verdict after Justice Tony Randerson has summed the case up tomorrow morning.
There are a number of suppressions, including that no historical photos of the accused be published.
NZPA