Quebec’s Court of Appeal has overturned a stay of proceedings that was granted to retired Quebec judge Jacques Delisle. Delisle was convicted in 2012 for fatally shooting his wife, but the conviction was later reversed by the federal justice minister. The province’s highest court has ruled that the case should return to Quebec Superior Court for a new murder trial.
Delisle’s lawyers had successfully argued before Quebec Superior Court Justice Jean-François Émond that a retrial would be impossible due to serious errors in a Crown expert’s pathology report and unreasonable delays in the case. However, the Crown announced its intent to appeal the stay shortly after in April 2022. Today’s ruling from the Court of Appeal agrees that the lower court judge erred in granting the stay.
Jacques Delisle, who previously served on the Quebec Court of Appeal, was originally found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Marie Nicole Rainville, and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. His initial appeal was dismissed in 2013, and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his case. Delisle spent nine years behind bars before being released in 2021 when the federal justice minister ordered a new trial after reviewing previously undisclosed evidence and concluding that a miscarriage of justice had likely occurred.