Jurisdictions / Canada
A seven judge majority held the trial judge should have kept Awale Hussein's youth findings and violent convictions from the jury. Yet the evidence on identity and intent was so strong that the Court applied the curative proviso and dismissed the appeal.
The Crown refused a judge-alone trial that would have finished on time. The Supreme Court held that the old "transitional" excuse for delay no longer applied, set aside the jury's verdicts and stayed the prosecution for breach of the right to be tried within a reasonable time.
The Crown told the jury Leighton Hay shaved off his dreadlocks after a nightclub shooting. Nobody tested the hair at trial. Years later, forensic experts found the clippings came mainly from his face, and the Supreme Court of Canada admitted that evidence and set aside the convictions.