Pickton loses appeal - UPDATED
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Posted By ALTHIA RAJ, QMI Agency
Updated 1 month ago
OTTAWA — Convicted serial killer Robert Pickton won't get a new trial, Canada's top court ruled Friday.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court's nine justices ruled Pickton received a fair trial and his six second-degree murder convictions for the killing of six sex-trade workers stand.
Pickton's lawyers had argued the fairness of his trial was undermined when the trial judge told the jury during its deliberations they could find him guilty if they believed he "actively participated" in the murders.
The jury asked B.C. Supreme Court judge James Williams whether they could find him guilty if they only believed he "acted indirectly."
The prosecution maintained Pickton had acted alone when he shot and killed women he'd lured to his pig farm from Vancouver's downtown east side and Williams had initially instructed the jury if they had reasonable doubts Pickton was the sole killer, they had to find him not guilty.
Defence lawyer Gil McKinnon said Williams' last minute instructions changed the "goal posts" giving jurors a wider net to convict him.
Justice Louise Charron said Pickton's own admission that he was the "head honcho" and the "head guy" among other participants in the killing forced the judge to instruct the jury on other means of finding the pig butcher criminally responsible.
The Supreme Court found Williams had originally erred in telling jurors they had to acquit Pickton if they believed he wasn't the sole killer. But in his later instructions, Williams corrected himself.
Justice Denis LeBel, writing for three of the justices, said the trial judge should have instructed jurors on the legal legal principles of aiding and encouraging an unknown shooter. But, LeBel said, there was no injustice done because of the overwhelming evidence in this case.
A properly instructed jury would likely have convicted the accused of first-degree murder rather than second-degree murder, he wrote.
"This was a long and difficult trial — but it was also a fair one," LeBel wrote. "Despite the errors set out above, there was no miscarriage of justice occasioned by the trial proceedings. Mr. Pickton was entitled to the same measure of justice as any other person in this country. He received it. He is not entitled to more."
Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six second-degree murder charges and sentenced to life in prison without any possibility of parole for 25 years.
He still faces 20 other murder charges in connection with the deaths of other women.
Police first started searching Pickton's farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C., in 2002.
althia.raj@sunmedia.ca
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