SUPREME
COURT OF CANADA
Between:
Her
Majesty The Queen
Appellant
and
Clarence
Michael MacLeod
Respondent
Coram: Abella,
Cromwell, Moldaver, Wagner and Gascon JJ.
|
Reasons for
Judgment:
(para. 1)
|
Cromwell J. (Abella, Moldaver,
Wagner and Gascon JJ. concurring)
|
R. v. MacLEOD,
2014 SCC 76, [2014] 3 S.C.R. 619
Her Majesty The Queen Appellant
v.
Clarence Michael MacLeod Respondent
Indexed as: R. v. MacLeod
2014 SCC 76
File No.: 35957.
2014: December
10.
Present: Abella,
Cromwell, Moldaver, Wagner and Gascon JJ.
on appeal from the court
of appeal for nova scotia
Criminal
law — Second degree murder — Charge to jury — Lesser verdict of manslaughter —
Air of reality — Defence counsel arguing at trial that alternate verdict of
manslaughter incompatible with main defence — Trial judge erred in failing to
charge jury on manslaughter.
APPEAL
from a judgment of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal (Saunders, Beveridge and
Farrar JJ.A.), 2014 NSCA 63, 346 N.S.R. (2d) 222, 311 C.C.C. (3d) 300, [2014]
N.S.J. No. 294 (QL), 2014 CarswellNS 425, setting aside the accused’s conviction
for second degree murder and ordering a new trial. Appeal dismissed.
Mark A. Scott and Marian Fortune-Stone, Q.C., for the appellant.
Roger A. Burrill, for the respondent.
The
judgment of the Court was delivered orally by
[1]
Cromwell J. ― In our view, it was an error of law in this case not to leave
manslaughter with the jury notwithstanding the position of the defence at
trial. The appeal is dismissed.
Judgment accordingly.
Solicitor for the appellant:
Public Prosecution Service of Nova Scotia, Halifax.
Solicitor for the
respondent: Nova Scotia Legal Aid, Halifax.
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