unnamed forensic alcohol specialist

The appellant was convicted of second-degree murder after stabbing his wife while severely intoxicated.

He appealed on the basis that the trial judge erred in instructing the jury on the effect of drunkenness on his ability to form the requisite intent for murder.

The Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal and directed a new trial, finding that the trial judge failed to properly link the common sense inference that a person intends the natural consequences of their actions to the evidence of the appellant's intoxication.