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Perhaps Winnipeg lawyer
Greg Brodsky chose the wrong case to try this defence. The cop
who was shot was a sympathetic figure and the accused were rendered
cold-blooded by poverty, alcohol, and whatever it is that turns
desperate young people into menaces to society. Nonetheless,
Brodsky made some important observations during a time when we
are hearing regular reports of police jumping to extreme measures
in situations where life could be preserved.
Maximum penalty warranted
for killers of police, judge rules
By KIRK MAKIN, JUSTICE
REPORTER, Globe and Mail , Mar. 6, 2003
The automatic use of first-degree-murder
charges for anyone who kills a police officer is justifiable
because "an attack on a police officer is an attack on society
itself," a Manitoba judge ruled yesterday.
The ruling removed a cloud
of doubt from an issue of great importance to police officers
-- the added protection they believe comes from having the ultimate
penalty in Canadian law apply to killers of police.
The charge was challenged by
two Albertans, Robert Marlo Sand and Laurie Ann Bell, who face
trial in the 2001 murder of RCMP Constable Dennis Strongquill.
The 52-year-old father of six
died when a gun battle erupted after he pulled over a car in
a routine traffic stop.
"Police officers are the
front line of society's defence against crime," Mr. Justice
John Menzies of the Court of Queen's Bench said in his judgment.
"I agree with the comment
of [Crown prosecutor Shawn Greenberg] that an attack on a police
officer is an attack on society itself. Parliament has deemed
it necessary to clearly denounce the murder of a police officer."
Under the Criminal Code of
Canada, first-degree murder carries a punishment of life imprisonment
without parole eligibility for at least 25 years.
Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky
argued during the challenge that the mandatory murder charge
is a violation of the constitutional right to life, liberty and
security of the person, as well as the right to be free of arbitrary
detention.
He argued it is unfair to protect
police using harsh penalties that are not available in the case
of other professionals, such as firefighters, lawyers and judges.
Mr. Brodsky maintained that
the automatic penalty could lead to conviction if a stray bullet
were to hit a parking-enforcement officer or a police administrator.
However, Ms. Greenberg countered
that Mr. Brodsky's point was irrelevant and speculative, since
Constable Strongquill had been killed while he was on duty and
had pulled a car over.
"The defence counsel suggested
that the section went too far because it would capture a Mountie
on the Musical Ride, but I haven't yet heard of an attack on
a Mountie during one of these performances," Ms. Greenberg
said in an interview yesterday.
She noted that the Criminal
Code section that was challenged does not apply to the murder
of an off-duty police officer.
"It applies to the murder
of an officer 'acting in the course of his duties,' " she
said. "It is the killing of an officer attempting to arrest
a suspect or to prevent the commission of an offence that merits
additional denunciation."
Courts in Alberta, Quebec and
Ontario have heard similar challenges, with the same result,
though those rulings were issued 10 or more years ago.
Pretrial arguments on several
other points are scheduled for March 24. Jury selection is to
begin in April in Brandon.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Lawyer challenges stiffer
sentences for killing police
By GRAEME SMITH, Globe
and Mail, Feb. 26, 2003
Brandon - The judge presiding
over the case of a Mountie who was shot and killed reserved judgment
Wednesday on the defence's challenge to the law declaring that
such killings are automatically considered first-degree murder.
For the first time in a decade,
a lawyer in a Canadian courtroom had argued that it was unfair
to protect police officers with stiffer penalties when other
officials -such as judges - are not given the same protection.
The constitutional arguments
come before the trial of two people accused of killing 52-year-old
RCMP Constable Dennis Strongquill in December, 2001, near Russell,
Man.
Robert Marlo Sand, 23, and
Laurie Ann Bell, 20, both of Alberta, are charged with first-degree
murder in the shooting. The Criminal Code mandates that any killing
of a police officer in the line of duty automatically counts
as first-degree murder.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Justice
John Menzies of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench interrogated
defence lawyer Greg Brodsky as he began to lay out his constitutional
argument.
"Is a police officer's
life worth more jail time?" Mr. Brodsky asked, noting that
judges do not receive the same treatment.
"Maybe we're not held
in as high esteem as police officers," Judge Menzies responded,
chuckling.
But he then pointed at the
sheriffs guarding the two accused in the courtroom and added
on a more serious note: "I'm secondary. They have to get
past them to get at me."
Mr. Brodsky also argued that
not all police officers have first-hand contact with dangerous
suspects. Administration staff or wire-tap operators, for instance,
do not face the same dangers.
"This is not comic books.
This is not cartoon life," the lawyer said.
Constitutional arguments in
the case are public, but a publication ban protects the agreed
statement of facts of allegations against the accused and their
past histories, unless it is already in the public domain.
Ms. Bell and Mr. Sand are expected
to stand trial in March.
In her rebuttal to Mr. Brodsky's
arguments, Crown attorney Shawn Greenberg argued that police
officers are more vulnerable to attack than the general public
and deserve special protections.
"All human life is valued
equally, but there is a need in the case of police officers for
extra deterrents and denounciations," she said.
"An attack on a police
officer is an attack on our ability to enforce the law. It destabilizes
the entire system."
© 2003 Bell Globemedia
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
