Prosecutorial Discretion and the Ethics of Stays
- May 22, 2016
- Clayton Rice, K.C.
Many junior criminal lawyers in Alberta think that a stay of proceedings is a normal way for a Crown Attorney to terminate a prosecution before verdict at trial. But it hasn’t always been this way. I was a young lawyer the…
Ontario Court of Appeal Raps Arrogant Cop
- May 14, 2016
- Clayton Rice, K.C.
I don’t discuss law enforcement as a stand alone topic on this blog. But police conduct will come into play in search and seizure law. And that is what happened the day Alexander Harflett was travelling on Highway 401 in…
A Search Is a Search Is a Search
- May 6, 2016
- Clayton Rice, K.C.
I have written before on this blog about the Supreme Court of Canada’s split 4-3 ruling in R v Fearon, [2014] 3 SCR 621 where Justice Thomas Cromwell for the majority reached the startling conclusion that a police fishing expedition…
Irrational Sentence for Pot ‘n Pills in Alberta
- April 28, 2016
- Clayton Rice, K.C.
On May 25, 2013, Krista Danielle Sargent was caught trying to bring four grams of marihuana, four Tylenol 4s and three Tylenol 3s into the Edmonton Maximum Penitentiary located north of Edmonton, Alberta. On September 11, 2015, she pleaded guilty…
What Is a Miscarriage of Justice?
- April 22, 2016
- Clayton Rice, K.C.
A miscarriage of justice is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit and is synonymous with wrongful conviction. Wrongful convictions come from almost every jurisdiction in Canada. Donald Marshall in Nova Scotia, Rejean…