Douglas Garland Trial - Guilty- 1st degree- 3 counts / 75 years no parole.

[greyshep]

Re: Defence not calling any evidence or witnesses

So once again I have to ask why we went through this charade other than for Garland to be able to relive this and inflict more pain on the family.

[REDVAN]

wow

[Nyah]

WTF was with the not guilty plead at the beginning??

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by greyshep

Re: Defence not calling any evidence or witnesses

So once again I have to ask why we went through this charade other than for Garland to be able to relive this and inflict more pain on the family.

You mean something other than the fact that everyone is entitled to a fair trial?

[Hockeyguy15]

Should we take bets on the over/under for time for the jury to find him guilty?

I call 30 minutes.

[Luder]

A big waste of time and money and the family has to experience the horror all over again, now is it safe to say Garland deserves nothing but to die?

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

If you want to read something chilling in its own right, read the executive summary of the report from the Kaufman Commission, which investigated the wrongful conviction of Guy Paul Morin for the 1984 murder and rape of 9 year old Christine Jessop.
Obviously, this kind of abuse/impropriety of... well... almost everything in the entire system would be very unlikely to happen now, it serves as an important reminder that innocent people have been convicted of heinous crimes, and only later found to be unquestionably innocent.

https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov....rin_esumm.html

I would hesitate to say this couldn't happen now, Charles Smith was responsible for false charges up to 2003. We like to think we have progressed and are so much smarter than we were but I think we should never stop being vigilant for abuses of the system like the Morin case.

[bigtmac19]

Nice remarks from the Judge to the Jury about the disturbing evidence they have heard. I'm sure the defense won't offer much in the way of closing arguments either. I really wonder if Garland and he really spoke much.

We always think about the grief of jury members, but everyone involved has to bear the same burden of a trial like this.

[greyshep]

What kind of closing arguments are the defence going to have on Monday. Is "no comment" a legitmate closing argument? Cause thats kind of what it seems like they went with in their opportunity to call evidence/witnesses.

[EldrickOnIce]

Can this be considered a strategy?
It doesn't seem like it...

[automaton 3]

I wouldn't read anything into this.

The defence will set out in their closing all of the missing pieces of evidence and all the problems with the evidence presented.

Is there enough evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the only rational inference is guilt? That will be up to the jury.

[MBates]

You cannot make someone plead guilty. I don't question for a second the sincerity of anyone's feelings of anger or sympathy for the family but this is not particularly surprising.

Consider how you would feel if the accused now started calling garbage witnesses putting up a fake alibi or something like that. Would that somehow make the situation better than calling no evidence and relying on the presumption of innocence and burden of proof?

Would anyone be calling for leniency or lauding the accused as a gentleman if he had pleaded guilty and admitted to doing these things?

If he did these things, why on earth would you expect him to be kind to the family during the trial process?

[Clarkey]

I don't care what all the regressive lefties have to say about what a 'civilized society' should do, this POS needs to get his arse beat in prison! Repeatedly!

Overly politically correct softness is the scourge of our society right now.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by MBates

You cannot make someone plead guilty. I don't question for a second the sincerity of anyone's feelings of anger or sympathy for the family but this is not particularly surprising.

Consider how you would feel if the accused now started calling garbage witnesses putting up a fake alibi or something like that. Would that somehow make the situation better than calling no evidence and relying on the presumption of innocence and burden of proof?

Would anyone be calling for leniency or lauding the accused as a gentleman if he had pleaded guilty and admitted to doing these things?

If he did these things, why on earth would you expect him to be kind to the family during the trial process?

His council was put in a tough spot from the start. There is really no way they would win this trial with the evidence the Crown has against him, so they were pretty much just there to assure he received a fair trial.

They played the circumstantial evidence card where appropriate, but that is really all they could do.

[MBates]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I would assume that someone sat down with them and told them what was going to be shown or presented, to not do that and have them sit there would be monstrous, especially since they will be the ones presenting victim impact statements if a guilty verdict is reached.

(Right lawyers that reside here?)

I would have expected the family to have been pretty well aware of the police theory and conclusions a long time ago. There is no strict rule when it comes to witness exclusion and to not have told the parents what the police investigation concluded about the death of their child would seem to me unusual when there was no concern they were involved and no real obvious concern that their evidence would be tainted by such information.

In any event, once mom was off the stand, then there would be no reason to keep from her what was about to be said in open court as the trial progressed.

[REDVAN]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

I don't care what all the regressive lefties have to say about what a 'civilized society' should do, this POS needs to get his arse beat in prison! Repeatedly!

Overly politically correct softness is the scourge of our society right now.

WTF are you on about? You've already been shown in this thread why this type of thing isn't right, and I'd like to point out that any punishment here has nothing to do with the "regressive left."

[FlamesAddiction]

Just putting on my despicable human being hat, but if I know I am going to a federal pen for the rest of my life (as a child murderer at that), I would probably drag it out as long as possible too. Just getting to go on daily car rides is a luxury he won't get again.

[Nyah]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

I don't care what all the regressive lefties have to say about what a 'civilized society' should do, this POS needs to get his arse beat in prison! Repeatedly!

Overly politically correct softness is the scourge of our society right now.

I don't think you understand what regressive left means.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

His council was put in a tough spot from the start. There is really no way they would win this trial with the evidence the Crown has against him, so they were pretty much just there to assure he received a fair trial.

They played the circumstantial evidence card where appropriate, but that is really all they could do.

Yup, make sure it was fair so that there is no reasonable chance to get an appeal.

It's as important as every other aspect of the legal system.

[MBates]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

I don't care what all the regressive lefties have to say about what a 'civilized society' should do, this POS needs to get his arse beat in prison! Repeatedly!

Overly politically correct softness is the scourge of our society right now.

I can rather confidently tell you that, if Garland did what it appears the jury will likely conclude he did, it had nothing to do with how he perceived the relative political correctness of Canadian sentencing law.

Good grief. Is society collectively believing we should not torture people the scourge of society or is it the members of society who for whatever reason are prepared to torture other human beings? Can you really not see it?

When the O'Briens don't openly call for Garland to be tortured, will you disparage them as politically correct regressive lefties?