'This is a case about the Crown cheating'
(http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2510706)
"A panel of three Ontario Court of Appeal judges was urged yesterday to order a new trial in a double murder case because of secret vetting of potential jurors by the Crown and police."
Yes yes... The Crown used the Police to perform background checks on the various potential jurors (looking at things other than just their criminal record -which is as far as they are allowed to go), in order to choose only the one's that they thought would guarantee a conviction.
By law, both the Defense and the Crown should only be allowed to see Jury lists up to 10 days before jury selection. But in the Crown's case, they had these lists at least 7 WEEKS before the jury selection.. Allowing them to send the lists to the Police to do full checks of their Vehicle Incident history, their history in dealing with the Police, where they live, their Annual Income and any other information that would be useful in determining whether they are more likely to convict, or acquit.
"The results [from the Police background checks] were turned over to the Crown's office and a colour coded list was constructed to help decide on the acceptability of a potential juror. One of the police officers involved in the vetting admitted during cross-examination in the Yumnu appeal that even addresses were analyzed to see if someone lived in a "nice area" which might make them more Crown friendly. People who had been charged with a crime, even if it was later dismissed, received a "thumbs down," because they might be critical of police, the officer admitted."
In addition to them all Cheating and Breaking the Law, this also shows how the Corrupt Crown and the Corrupt Police collude in order to show victories for both, no matter if the Defendant is innocent until proven guilty... The more convictions, the more promotions for the Police, and the better looking track record (conviction success rate) for the Crown (a la Law Abiding Citizen
with Jamie Foxx
)."Far from being a clandestine affair, it appears that several levels of employees at the courthouse, as well as many local police services all worked together to probe potential jurors, keeping only the defence out of the jury vetting loop."
I wonder if all of these participants will be brought up on Charges for obstruction of justice or something like that?? If it was the defense who was doing something like this, everyone who participated would go down. But since it's the Crown and the Police, the worst thing that can happen is a New Trial... How is this right?
"This is a case about the Crown cheating. This is a case about the Crown breaking the law," said defence lawyer Greg Lafontaine during the appeal court hearing."
--jackandcokewithalime
PS: This has been going on since 1996!!! There are countless cases which can now be overturned because of this!
Here's one example:
(http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2507081)
"There are at least a dozen other outstanding appeals where jury vetting took place, including the case of a young man convicted of killing a police officer, all awaiting the outcome of the Yumnu case."
"One of the appeals is the case of Troy Davey, convicted of first-degree murder in the 2004 death of Cobourg police officer Chris Garrett.
It was recently disclosed that the Crown asked fellow prosecutors and police to examine the jury lists to see if there was any "personal knowledge" they could pass on about individuals, which was kept from the defence.
"There was not a level playing field," said Catriona Verner, who is representing Davey on his appeal. "It seems they were aware of the policy [not to conduct background checks] and were trying to circumvent it," she added."
(References:
http://www.kelowna.com/2010/02/01/background-checks
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/02/01/12701221.html
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2510706
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2507081)
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