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Originally Posted by fredr123
And the Supreme Court has denied Ferguson's appeal:
HELD: Appeal dismissed. There was no basis for the conclusion that the mandatory four-year minimum sentence was cruel or unusual punishment on the facts of this case. Since there was no s. 12 Charter violation in the circumstances, the trial judge should have imposed the minimum four-year sentence. A constitutional exemption was not an appropriate remedy for a s. 12 Charter violation. Any law imposing a mandatory minimum sentence that was found to be unconstitutional in a given case should have been declared inconsistent with the Charter and held to be of no force or effect.
Full decision here: http://www.lexisnexis.ca/documents/2008scc6.pdf |
And the SCC has it exactly right. The trial judge's decision amounted to a clear error in law. Given the nature of the charges, and the implications of the possible precedent, the Crown really had no choice but to appeal this.