1 total
Appeal dismissed; preliminary inquiry judge committed jurisdictional error by weighing competing inferences regarding subjective foresight.
The appellants were charged with second degree murder after a fire they allegedly set for insurance proceeds resulted in a death.
The preliminary inquiry judge discharged them on the murder charges, finding no subjective foresight of death.
The reviewing judge quashed the discharge on certiorari, finding the preliminary inquiry judge committed jurisdictional error by weighing competing inferences.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, agreeing that the preliminary inquiry judge erred by failing to consider the available inference that the appellants, as reasonable persons, would have foreseen the likelihood of death.
