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Originally Posted by Makarov
Fair enough. There is little doubt that Mr. Bushir and his companions were engaging in criminal behaviour on the night of the shooting (and I have little doubt had also done so in the past).
But it is interesting that so much of this thread has been devoted to discussing that issue rather than the issue of Mr. Stanley’s guilt (especially given the implausibility of the rifle misfire defence [at least it sounds pretty implausible to me]). I’d like to read a little bit more about the evidence adduced at trial before I make up my mind. However, I think that issue deserves more attention in this thread.
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The thing about the hang fire is that while they are rare, they do occur. Using 60-70 year to of surplus ammo would certainly increase the chance of one depending on how the ammo had been stored and how degraded it was at the time it was fired. The RCMP expert called even testified that when he test fired the pistol he experienced a failure to fire and a jam, using Stanley’s ammo, both of these would support the theory of degraded ammo.
He had also not personally experienced a hang fire and offered his opinion that one might last a half second at most, as well as referencing a study done that claims a .28 second delay for a hang fire.
I’d say that the firearms testimony didn’t do much for the Crown and only served to confirm that it was possible that the pistol experienced a malfunction that night