Dennis Oland’s defence lawyer has argued at his murder conviction appeal in Fredericton that while the trial jury was “well-intentioned” and ‘hardworking” the guilty verdict was an unreasonable one.
Defence lawyer Alan Gold, at the end of his submissions in the N.B. Court of Appeal, asked a panel of three justices, which includes the Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau, what’s more reasonable? That Dennis Oland is a “singularly unlucky person” who happened to visit his father on the day he was murdered, or, that he’s an “incredibly lucky, completely amateur killer.”
“People are notoriously bad at probability assessments,” says Gold. “Coincidences have a bad name in our minds.”
The only reasonable conclusion to reach from all the evidence in the case was an aquittal, he argues.
“Inference of guilty is so incredibly improbable and unreasonable once you consider all of the evidence,” Gold says.
“[The] jury produced a verdict that the law recognizes as an unreasonable one in law and that which this court is required by law to reverse.”
There was no piece of evidence that cried out that Dennis #Oland was the guilty perpetrator, Gold says.
— Laura Lyall (@LauraLyall) October 19, 2016
Oland is looking to be acquitted or to have a new trial ordered. He’s been sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for at least 10 years in the death of his father, high-profile businessman Richard Oland after being found guilty of second-degree murder by 12 jurors.
The Crown is now making its submissions at the appeal, with Crown prosecutor Kathryn Gregory saying that everything that Oland did before or after meeting his father on the day he was brutally murdered is of interest and revelant.
She describes the statement that Oland gave to the police on the day Richard Oland’s bludgeoned body was found as “highly relevant” to the murder when it comes to narrative and credibility.
Thursday is the third and final day of the conviction appeal. It’s scheduled to get underway at 10 a.m.
Chief Justice Drapeau & Gregory now discussing the ‘lie’ that #Oland told about the jacket he was wearing & what jury should’ve been told.
— Laura Lyall (@LauraLyall) October 19, 2016
See below for a recap of day two:
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