The Supreme Court of Canada reserved judgment on serial killer Robert Pickton's bid for a new murder trial today, minutes after hearing B.C prosecutors concede that their colleagues dropped the ball at Mr. Pickton's trial.
They said that it was wrong for the Crown to have agreed to jurors being told that the B.C. pig farmer could only be convicted of murdering six sex trade workers if he was the actual trigger man.
"The Crown was simply wrong in the context of this case to take that position," prosecutor Gregory Fitch said. "There was no strategic advantage, and it made proof of our case more difficult. The Crown made an error."
However, Mr. Fitch argued that the blunder did not change the fact that Mr. Pickton is overwhelmingly guilty of playing a lead role in the killings, and that it would be a travesty for the Court to order a new trial.
The Court appeared divided over the gravity of the flaws in the trial. Some judges suggested that the defence was seriously misled, while others wondered aloud whether any genuine harm was caused.
"Given the staggering amount of evidence in this case... where is the prejudice or miscarriage of justice that would justify overturning it?" Madam Justice Rosalie Abella interjected.
The startling concession by the B.C Crown came along with a plea for the Court to logically evaluate the entire case against Mr. Pickton.
"He is the one constant in the execution of this scheme," Mr. Fitch said. "His thumb print is on every step."
Mr. Fitch said that Mr. Pickton boasted to friends that he was "the head honcho" of the killings and that he had been stopped just one killing of his goal of 50 murders.
Launching oral arguments in an attempt to overturn Mr. Pickton's convictions, defence counsel Gil McKinnon told the Court that the move was vastly unfair to Mr. Pickton, whose entire defence had been predicated on responding to the Crown's theory that he acted alone in killing six sex-trade workers.
The change came after B.C. Supreme Court Judge James Williams received a question from the jury asking whether it could convict Mr. Pickton even if he was aided by other perpetrators.
“The question struck at the chord of the prosection's case,” Mr. McKinnon said.
He said that defence counsel at the trial “vehemently opposed” the trial judge's intention to tell the jury that it could find Mr. Pickton equally guilty as a sole perpetrator or as a “party” to the killing.
“The appearance of fairness in this trial was evaporating,” he said.
The Court will ultimately decide whether Mr. Pickton – who is believed to be Canada's most prolific serial killer – ought to be granted a new trial.
If the judges decide that fairness requires a new trial, the courts will have to replay an arduous case that consumed five years, featured 129 witnesses and included 1.3 million pages of documents.
The Crown theory at Robert Pickton's murder trial was that he shot or strangled six sex-trade workers on his pig farm in Coquitlam, B.C.
In December, 2007, a jury agreed, convicting Mr. Pickton of the second-degree murder of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe and Georgina Papin.
He was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.
The key issue at his appeal is whether Mr. Pickton's trial judge misdirected the jury after it emerged from the jury room to ask whether it could convict Mr. Pickton even if it believed that he was helped by an accomplice.
Last year, the B.C. Court of Appeal split 2-1 in upholding his conviction.
B.C. Crown counsel Gregory Fitch and John Gordon maintain that retrying Mr. Pickton would be costly and futile. They state that there was overwhelming evidence against Mr. Pickton.
