Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: vorticon on June 13, 2008, 11:27:11 PM
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"A jury in Quebec has acquitted a man of first-degree murder in the deadly shooting of a Laval police officer who raided his home last year.
Basil Parasiris and his wife Penny Gounis leave the Longueuil courthouse after he was acquitted of murdering Const. Daniel Tessier.Basil Parasiris and his wife Penny Gounis leave the Longueuil courthouse after he was acquitted of murdering Const. Daniel Tessier. (Radio-Canada)Basil Parasiris was acquitted on Friday by a 12-person jury at the Longueuil courthouse, on Montreal's South Shore.
He was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Const. Daniel Tessier, who died after being shot three times last spring after he entered Parasiris's Brossard home with a battering ram during a botched drug raid.
The verdict means the jury believed Parasiris's self-defence argument was enough to raise a reasonable doubt about the charges.
The father of two insisted he believed his family was being attacked by home invaders when a police team swarmed their house on March 2, 2007.
Believing the invaders were going to harm him, his wife and his children, Parasiris testified he had no choice but to shoot.
It was only after Tessier was lying on the ground that Parasiris realized he was an officer, he told the court.
Wife bursts into tears
Parasiris's wife, Penny Gounis, yelled "Oh my God" as the verdict was read out, and then burst into tears.
Crown prosecutors said they would take some time to consider whether they'll appeal.
Quebec Superior Court Judge Guy Cournoyer had already acquitted Parasiris of the attempted murder of another officer, Const. Stéphane Forbes, who was shot in the arm during the raid.
Two weapons-related charges were also dropped earlier this week.
Cournoyer also declared the warrant police used to enter the home to be illegal — a ruling that was kept from the jury while it deliberated the verdict for three and a half days behind closed doors.
Parasiris was granted bail after his arrest, unprecedented in any previous Canadian police officer slaying.
Police to review guidelines: chief
Laval police Chief Jean-Pierre Gariépy expressed dismay at the decision, and reiterated the reason his officers entered Parasiris's home in the first place.
"Beyond the verdict, it is useful to remember that Mr. Parasiris had four firearms in his home and only one was legally registered," Gariepy told a news conference Friday night. "We found a variety of drugs and 17 cellphones and pagers in the home."
But Gariepy also acknowledged the trial had raised concerns about how the police operation was conducted.
He said the force will recommend that Quebec's Public Security Department review the guidelines and training for "dynamic entries," and that it clarify the procedures for obtaining search warrants.
Tessier's death and Parasiris's murder trial have been difficult on police officers across Quebec, the province's federation of municipal officers said.
But the federation is disappointed to learn Parasiris will walk on the murder charge.
"We were looking for something else, we have to be truthful about that," president Denis Côté said on Friday. "We have to sit down and see what the verdict was about."
There could be lessons to learn from the raid on Parasiris's home, Côté said, but he refused to say officers involved in the bust were to blame for what happened.
Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis said he will not be commenting on the verdict at this time."
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/06/13/qc-parasiris0613.html
sooner or later, they will learn busting into someones house unannounced and out of uniform is a good way to get shot. even with canada's tight gun control.
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Crown prosecutors said they would take some time to consider whether they'll appeal.
You can re-try for the same crime in Canada?
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You can re-try for the same crime in Canada?
Can the Crown appeal an acquittal or a sentence?
The Crown may appeal an acquittal, but the Crown's right to appeal is not as broad as the accused's right to appeal and is very limited. The Crown must show there was a significant error of law. An example of an error of law may occur when important evidence is wrongly excluded at the trial. The Crown may also appeal the sentence but such appeals are also very limited because appeal courts will not usually interfere with the trial judge's decision on sentencing.
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That's a shame no matter which way you look at it.
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It is unfortunate...
On a side note, the person reporting this needs to go back to writing school. That story sucks, grammatically.
:aok
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You can re-try for the same crime in Canada?
yes you can. they are after all subjects and are subjected to whims of their masters. incidents like this only serve to re-iterate why it is vital for us in this somewhat free nation to tenaciously fight for our rights. thank you for posting this alarming cautionary tale vorticon. remember fellow citizens that the price of freedom is eternal vigilence, take note during this important election year.
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You can re-try for the same crime in Canada?
They don't have the U.S. Constitution, so possibly yes they can.
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it is a tragic situation but at least the verdict was just.
I think the real problem is government breaking down peoples doors to their homes. when that happens.. tragedy is sure to follow.
lazs
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You can re-try for the same crime in Canada?
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
11. Any person charged with an offence has the right ...
(h) if finally acquitted of the offence, not to be tried for it again and, if finally found guilty and punished for the offence, not to be tried or punished for it again;
The key point here is that he is not finally aquitted until the appeals have been exhausted. Once the crown has exhausted it's appeal, then he is free of re-trial.
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You can re-try for the same crime in Canada?
You can retry for the same incident here in the US. It is allowed under a filing for a civil rights violation. The same incident, the same allegations of wrong doing, only in the second trial the main allegation that the deceased's (in a homicide but it also applies to other crimes like assault) civil rights were violated the second time around means you get to try the same individual again, using the same evidence in addition to any testimony of the accused in the first trial. In this way if there is an acquital in the first proecution the state can simply refile under a civil rights violation and do it all again.
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I always confer with O.J. Simpson before making any legal decisions.
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I always confer with O.J. Simpson before making any legal decisions.
OJ is a great example. He was found not guilty of murder of 2 ppl, and can never be tried for the murder of those 2 ppl again. He was sued for wrongful death, as civil liability is not the same as criminal liability.
He can never be tried for civil rights violations for those 2 murders as he was not acting on behalf of the government and as an individual he is not charged with upholding anyone's civil rights.
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You can retry for the same incident here in the US. It is allowed under a filing for a civil rights violation. The same incident, the same allegations of wrong doing, only in the second trial the main allegation that the deceased's (in a homicide but it also applies to other crimes like assault) civil rights were violated the second time around means you get to try the same individual again, using the same evidence in addition to any testimony of the accused in the first trial. In this way if there is an acquital in the first proecution the state can simply refile under a civil rights violation and do it all again.
Umm... so they are charging someone for the exact same criminal code?
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The key point IMO is "the warrant was not legal"! The cops screwed up and should not have been there. Yea i know he had drugs, unregistered guns, ect... but they blew it from the start. :( The fact that the case even made it to trial with that type of information out there is amazing in and of itself. :O As soon as the judge knew the warrant to be illegal that case should have been tossed out.
I don't know how Canadian law works, but i see a lawsuit coming from the defendant.
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You can re-try for the same crime in Canada?
Prosecutors can't appeal in the U.S.?
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Prosecutors can't appeal in the U.S.?
no. It's called double jeopardy here.
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Yow - never realised that. Heard of the concept of course, didn't realise how it was applied over yonder.
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In so far as double jeapordy is concerned both the US and Canada have rights against double jeopardy, however, as with all legal systems, there are exceptions, and interpretationial differences.
The US example:
"As another example, a state might try a defendant for murder, after which the federal government might try the same defendant for a federal crime (perhaps a civil rights violation or kidnapping) related to the same act. For example, the Los Angeles Police Department officers charged with assaulting Rodney King in 1991 were acquitted by a county court, but some were later convicted and sentenced in federal court for violating his civil rights. Similar techniques were used for prosecuting racially-motivated crimes in the Southern United States in the 1960s during the time of the Civil Rights Movement, when those crimes had not been actively prosecuted, or had resulted in acquittals by juries thought to be racist or sympathetic to the accused in local courts.
The 'separate sovereigns' exception to double jeopardy arises from the unique nature of the American federal system, in which states are considered to be sovereigns with plenary power that have relinquished a number of enumerated powers to the federal government. Double jeopardy attaches only to prosecutions for the same criminal act by the same sovereign, but as separate sovereigns, both the federal and state governments can bring separate prosecutions for the same act."
The Canadian example:
"The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms includes provisions such as section 11(h) prohibiting double jeopardy. But often this prohibition applies only after the trial is finally concluded. In contrast to the laws of the United States, Canadian law allows the prosecution to appeal from an acquittal. If the acquittal is thrown out, the new trial is not considered to be double jeopardy because the first trial and its judgment would have been annulled. In rare circumstances, a court of appeal might also substitute a conviction for an acquittal. This is not considered to be double jeopardy either - in this case the appeal and subsequent conviction are deemed to be a continuation of the original trial.
For an appeal from an acquittal to be successful, the Supreme Court of Canada requires that the Crown show an error in law was made during the trial and that the error contributed to the verdict."
As far as appeals go, both countires have Appeal Courts, at various levels, both ending up at a Federal Supreme Court, who are the final arbiters.
Neither country, in reality, has an absolutely "pure" right of no double jeapordy, as you might think in legal terms.