A University of Saskatchewan professor says a recent Supreme Court ruling complicates the job of a judge overseeing the Douglas Hales murder trial.
Hales is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Daleen Bosse of Onion Lake Cree Nation who was last seen in May 2004.
He is also charged with committing an indignity to a body.
RCMP undercover officers used a Mr. Big sting operation to elicit a murder confession out of Hales in 2008.
In such operations, undercover officers typically pose as members of a bogus criminal organization and use promises of big money payouts and friendship in order to lure in a target.
Last month, the Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction of a Newfoundland man who was also the target of a Mr. Big operation.
In its decision, the nation’s highest court ruled police relied too heavily on both inducements and threats in order to get a confession.
Glen Luther, who teaches law at the U of S, says Justice Gerald Allbright must now reexamine much of the evidence presented at the Hales trial to determine what is admissible as a result of the Supreme Court decision.
“Given that Mr. Justice Allbright’s ruling in Hales was decided prior to Hart (Nelson, Newfoundland man), I mean he’s got to go back now and apply the new rules, or the new admissibility rules, to the confessions that he already admitted,” he says.
However, Luther says although the defence’s arguments in the Hales trial are significantly strengthened by the Supreme Court ruling in Hart, there are dissimilarities between the two cases.
“My understanding of the Hart facts is that it wasn’t clear whether a murder occurred, it wasn’t clear whether he was the one that killed the girls, as I understand it. In Hales, it seems pretty clear that the evidence does show that Hales was with Ms. Bosse and that he was the one who disposed of the body and I am assuming the Crown can prove that even without the confessions.”
Both the Crown and defence are scheduled to meet on Aug. 29 to make submissions based on the high court ruling.