Case information

Charter of Rights and Freedoms — Right to liberty — Presumption of innocence — Right not to be tried again — Criminal law — Appeals —Appeals to Supreme Court of Canada — Where a directed verdict application is wrongly dismissed, a jury cannot reach a verdict and Crown counsel re-prosecutes the accused, is it unconstitutional and contrary to ss. 7, 11(d) or 11(h) of the Charter to have no right of appeal from the directed verdict ruling — What is the proper approach on a directed verdict application to the weighing of ambiguous audio recording in a wholly circumstantial case — Can the applications judge consider the content of a recording as part of the permissible limited weighing in exercising their gatekeeping role or does any interception, even one of poor quality, have to be left to the jury?

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In a trial before a jury on two counts of first degree murder, the trial judge dismissed an application for directed verdicts of acquittals. There is no right to appeal to the Court of Appeal for Ontario from the decision dismissing the application for a directed verdict. Ms. Merritt was acquitted on one count of murder by the jury but the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in relation to the second count of murder. The trial judge declared a mistrial in respect of that count.