Scholar casts doubt on Vader verdict
Posted Sep 15, 2016 1:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
At least one legal scholar is expressing doubts over the validity of the guilty verdict handed down to an Alberta man Thursday.
Travis Vader was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2010 deaths of seniors Lyle and Marie McCann.
Peter Sankoff, at the University of Alberta, points out the judge used an invalid section of the Criminal Code.
Section 230 — which defines murder — was long ago declared unconstitutional but it has never been repealed and remains in the code.
Sankoff says the difference is that the modern definition of murder states the killing must be intended, which the Crown was unable to prove against Vader.
Sankoff says the error leaves the verdict wide open to appeal _ something Vader’s lawyer has already said he intends to do.
