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Old 09-26-2006, 08:46 AM   #1
fredr123
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Default Alberta Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada Rule Against Ex-Mountie

In a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeal overturned the whacky ruling of Justice Hawco in the Michael Ferguson case. Ferguson, as you will recall, was the RCMP officer accused of killing Varley in his cell in Pincher Creek. Two previous juries hung before one finally convicted him. However, Justice Hawco found the 4-year minimum sentence for manslaughter committed with a firearm to be unconstitutional for Ferguson personally and ordered a lesser sentence.

The majority of the Court of Appeal really had no choice but to uphold the appeal against the sentence. It made no sense. Neither does the reasons of Mr. Justice O'Brien in dissent at the Court of Appeal. Perhaps the court is bending over backwards to go easy on a guy who has been prosecuted three times now for this offence. Perhaps they are trying to compensate for the Crown's insistence on continuing to swing away until they get the result they want (two out of three times there was no conviction).

More here:
Criminalreview.ca
Calgary Sun
Calgary Herald
Full-text of Decision

Last edited by fredr123; 02-29-2008 at 02:02 PM. Reason: Update re: SCC
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