Quote:
Originally Posted by CaramonLS
The crown messed up badly by going for a 2nd degree murder charge. They would have had a much better shot if they tried for manslaughter or criminal negligence charges.
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They did go for manslaughter though, the jury was eligible to find him guilty of that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaramonLS
This trial underscores the need to self defense law reform in Canada. There shouldn't be a dog and pony show every time someone defends themselves on their own property in Canada.
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This had nothing to do with self-defense, nor does it illustrate anything about it. Not even the defence brought it up as self-defense.
Stanley's position, and even really the Crown's, was that he walked/ran up to the vehicle and his gun accidentally discharged due to a hangfire. He wasn't trying to protect himself, his family or his property at the time of the actual homicide so self-defense had no bearing on this case. It was all about whether or not Stanley intentionally shot the gun, or in the case of the manslaughter charge, whether his negligence around it put him at guilt.
And even if you did want to get into the self-defense issue, which many people want to. The idea that you should be able to walk up to someone on your property and shoot them in the back of their head when they pose no threat? Yeah, no thanks. This is Canada, not some post-apocalyptic wasteland.