SUPREME COURT OF CANADA
Date: 20141210 Docket: 35957
Between:
Her Majesty The Queen
Appellant
and
Clarence Michael MacLeod
Respondent
Coram: Abella, Cromwell, Moldaver, Wagner and Gascon JJ.
Reasons for Judgment: (para. 1)
Cromwell J. (Abella, Moldaver, Wagner and Gascon JJ. concurring)
R. v. MacL EOD, 2014 SCC 76, [2014] 3 S.C.R. 619
Her Majesty The Queen Appellant
v.
Clarence Michael MacLeod Respondent
Indexed as: R. v. MacLeod
2014 SCC 76
File No.: 35957.
2014: December 10.
Present: Abella, Cromwell, Moldaver, Wagner and Gascon JJ.
on appeal from the court of appeal for nova scotia
Criminal law — Second degree murder — Charge to jury — Lesser verdict of manslaughter — Air of reality — Defence counsel arguing at trial that alternate verdict of manslaughter incompatible with main defence — Trial judge erred in failing to charge jury on manslaughter.
APPEAL from a judgment of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal (Saunders, Beveridge and Farrar JJ.A.), 2014 NSCA 63 , 346 N.S.R. (2d) 222, 311 C.C.C. (3d) 300, [2014] N.S.J. No. 294 (QL), 2014 CarswellNS 425, setting aside the accused’s conviction for second degree murder and ordering a new trial. Appeal dismissed.
Mark A. Scott and Marian Fortune-Stone , Q.C. , for the appellant.
Roger A. Burrill , for the respondent.
The judgment of the Court was delivered orally by
[ 1 ] Cromwell J. ― In our view, it was an error of law in this case not to leave manslaughter with the jury notwithstanding the position of the defence at trial. The appeal is dismissed.
Judgment accordingly.
Solicitor for the appellant: Public Prosecution Service of Nova Scotia, Halifax.
Solicitor for the respondent: Nova Scotia Legal Aid, Halifax.