My immediate response to the acquittal of Chris Kahui ranges between frustration at a police force that was too quick to charge Chris Kahui and should have spent more time on the investigation and rage at the twins' family who closed ranks and refused to speak to detectives.
However, perhaps age makes you more reflective - the answers are less obvious and the truths much more of a burden.
Of one certainty I am sure: that the murders of the Kahui twins is a marker of our age and casts a shadow that will hang over us in years to come.
A decade ago we smirked at the Americans for their immorality during the O. J. Simpson case. Images of O. J. Simpson driving down that highway in 1994 riveted the nation. The highly televised trial, the "dream team" of lawyers has more in common with the Kahui murders than we think.
Oddly enough, O. J. was accused of the double murder of Nichole Simpson and Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994. The fatal injuries that would kill babies Chris and Cru six days later also happened on June 12 - 2006.
The lesson from the O. J. Simpson trial was that the judicial system is a game. The accused, the media, the police and the teams of lawyers all play according to set rules and the verdict was determined by who knew the rules best.
The victims - well . . . The Kahui family played their game - they closed rank, kept tight and kept to their story. Everyone contributed to their game of stealth.
Did their counsel tell Kahui not to speak? It looks clear that Macsyna King misled the police when she said she was not in Mangere when cellphone records show she was.
And worse, the police downplayed critical evidence - even a possible confession.
And the game keeps going after the verdict, with the family pastor saying that the family is concerned the murderer is still out there.
The family were in the house when the murder was committed. They know what happened. Perhaps the pastor should tend to the family and remind them about truth.
And just to prove they were right, the police have now declared they will not be continuing the investigation. To do so would mean they were wrong - that would be breaking their rule.
Maori politicians can't defend this by referencing poverty - that just turns the family into victims as opposed to what they are: accomplices. There is nothing noble in this whanau and they weren't the victims.
So what next from here? The attorney-general needs to call for an independent inquiry into the case.
As the principal law officer of the Crown, responsible for supervising the state's administration of the law and for providing legal advice to the Government, Michael Cullen has the power to enact this and should do so promptly.
The thing about the death of the twins is that we can't even comfort ourselves with the thought that justice prevailed. We're no different from the United States where the circus of a courtroom potboiler hides something far more sinister - the erosion of truth and a whanau whose silence ate the future of Chris and Cru Kahui.
John Tamihere is a former cabinet minister and chief executive of the Waipareira Trust in West Auckland.
