本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛While initially outraged that one could be given no punishment at all for what is essentially murder, I gave the entire judgement a read and now have mixed feelings about it. To be clear, I neither agree or disagree with the judgement but I can present some reasons on why the judge here granted an acquittal. The biggest thing to note here is that the defendant was being tried in criminal court- that is, they're looking to see if he committed a criminal act deserving of imprisonment or other criminal sentence. Dangerous driving is illegal and this driver was driving dangerously at the time of the accident- there is zero doubt about that. However, there a number of requisite factors that must be met for the dangerous driving to be considered criminal. The Crown is open to appeal if they truly believe they have a case after the judgement was delivered but they may not (probably prompting public outrage in the process). The judge states multiple times that the evidence is insufficient to prove that the driver was driving recklessly for a prolonged period of time. The available evidence indicated to him that the driver was going the speed limit up until just 2-3 seconds before the accident. The judge also states multiple times that the driver was "objectively driving dangerously" so the judge does recognize the speeding and the dangerous driving. However, for all intents and purposes, it appears it was only momentarily. The other case where he was found guilty of excessive speeding cannot be recognized here as being related. The key flaw in the Crown's case is that they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the dangerous driving departed from mere carelessness to malicious intent. The evidence also suggests that the doctor may not have signaled his intent to turn and the defendant, speeding, did not expect the doctor to turn as he had right-of-way and that braking indicates that he was not being inattentive.. just.. careless. In addition to criminal proceedings, the victim's family will probably try the defendant in civil court where there is almost no chance they will lose and the defendant will probably be handed some driving restrictions and a huge civil penalty. But guess who loses in the end? ICBC... and all BC drivers who has paid for this man's defence and will pay whatever financial sum he must pay to the victim's family.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net