Stanley ‘relieved’ not to face appeal in murder acquittal
But ‘ this is not a happy day,’ his lawyer says
While lamenting the fatal shooting of Colten Boushie as tragic, Gerald Stanley is “relieved” over the Crown’s decision not to appeal the case.
“The Stanley family is relieved that the criminal process is now complete, but this is not a happy day,” said Stanley’s defence lawyer Scott Spencer on Thursday.
Prosecutors had 30 days following the Feb. 9 verdict to file an appeal against Stanley’s not guilty verdict. In deciding not to appeal, assistant deputy attorney general Anthony Gerein announced the public prosecutions office saw “no basis” for doing so.
Spencer offered on behalf of the Stanley family and his own legal team “our unreserved condolences to the Boushie/Baptiste family.
“A young man died, that is a terrible tragedy. There is no going back; there is no making it right. We hope that with time the Boushie/ Baptiste family can begin to heal.”
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Vice- Chief Kim Jonathan called the Crown’s decision “unfortunate but we weren’t surprised.”
During a news conference Thursday in response to the Crown’s decision, Jonathan — when asked about Stanley’s statement and condolences — expressed doubt over Stanley’s testimony and defence evidence, notably the hang-fire theory, and also disappointment in the RCMP investigation.
“There’s so many questions. Tell the truth,” Jonathan said.
“There won’t be any healing until that happens.”
Boushie, a resident of nearby Red Pheasant First Nation, was 22 years old, when he and four friends drove an SUV onto Stanley’s farm on Aug. 9, 2016, in the Rural Municipality of Glenside.
According to witness testimony during the trial, at least one occupant of the SUV attempted to start a quad on Stanley’s property, after which the SUV collided with a vehicle parked in the farmyard.
Boushie was sitting in the driver’s seat of the SUV when he was killed by a single gunshot to the head. Stanley, testifying in his own defence, said he reached into the driver’s window to turn the SUV off and the gun — which he believed was empty — “just went off.”
Following the acquittal of Stanley last month, there were immediate calls from Boushie supporters for an examination of how the case unfolded.
“We want our children to have just as much right to respect in the justice system as anybody else,” Jonathan said.
“We don’t want any more. We don’t want any less.”
She said that will happen through education and understanding “truths that are sometimes hard to listen to.”
Those conversations are “going to be difficult, she added, “scary and very uncomfortable” but they need to take place.
The case, which saw Stanl ey face a second- degree murder charge after Boushie’s 2016 death, polarized the province. Critics saw a jury with no visibly Indigenous members, and concluded that First Nations victims
A YOUNG MAN DIED, THAT IS A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
cannot get justice in Canada.
Gerein on Wednesday told reporters the Crown “cannot appeal because some people have questions about how the investigation was done or what the lawyers did.
“I know there is much sadness over the decision not to appeal,” he continued. “That is unfortunate, but there can be no appeal because the law does not allow it.”
But Gerein said an appeal would not be the proper venue to address those concerns. He said the Crown can only appeal due to an error in law, and only if the mistake was sufficiently grave to affect the outcome of the trial. In a jury case, that’s almost exclusively a matter of the judge’s instructions to the jury.
“There is no basis for concluding (Chief Justice Martel Popescul) said or did anything that would justify an appeal,” he said.