SUPREME COURT OF CANADA
Date: 20140321 Docket: 35531
Between:
Her Majesty The Queen
Appellant
and
Jeffrey Kevin Leinen
Respondent
Coram: LeBel, Abella, Rothstein, Cromwell, Moldaver, Karakatsanis and Wagner JJ.
Reasons for Judgment: (para. 1)
LeBel J. (Abella, Rothstein, Cromwell, Moldaver, Karakatsanis and Wagner JJ. concurring)
R. v. Leinen, 2014 SCC 23, [2014] 1 S.C.R. 500
Her Majesty The Queen Appellant
v.
Jeffrey Kevin Leinen Respondent
Indexed as: R. v. Leinen
2014 SCC 23
File No.: 35531.
2014: March 21.
Present: LeBel, Abella, Rothstein, Cromwell, Moldaver, Karakatsanis and Wagner JJ.
on appeal from the court of appeal for alberta
Criminal law — Trial — Charge to jury — Accused convicted of second degree murder and aggravated assault for killing one person and injuring another after driving truck into crowd — Accused invoking involuntary panic response or lack of intent to kill or injure anyone and alleging that trial judge misdirected jury — Court of Appeal ordering new trial on ground that trial judge failed to instruct properly on legal significance of panic attack defence — Charge to jury, read as a whole, containing no reversible error in relation to voluntariness or intent.
APPEAL from a judgment of the Alberta Court of Appeal (Hunt and McDonald JJ.A. and Hughes J. ( ad hoc )), 2013 ABCA 283 , 83 Alta. L.R. (5th) 29, 556 A.R. 211, 584 W.A.C. 211, 301 C.C.C. (3d) 1, 48 M.V.R. (6th) 1, [2013] A.J. No. 804 (QL), 2013 CarswellAlta 1394, setting aside the accused’s convictions for second degree murder and aggravated assault and ordering a new trial. Appeal allowed and convictions restored.
Josh Hawkes , Q.C. , for the appellant.
Jennifer Ruttan and Karen B. Molle , for the respondent.
The judgment of the Court was delivered orally by
[ 1 ] LeBel J. — We are all of the view that the charge to the jury, read as a whole, contained no reversible error in relation to either voluntariness or intent. For these reasons, the appeal is allowed and the convictions are restored.
Judgment accordingly.
Solicitor for the appellant: Attorney General of Alberta, Calgary.
Solicitors for the respondent: Ruttan Bates, Calgary; Karen B. Molle, Calgary.