SUPREME COURT OF CANADA
| Citation: R. v. Leinen, 2014 SCC 23, [2014] 1 S.C.R. 500 |
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.