SCC Decision: October 30, 2008

Click here to link to the full judgment.

The accused was charged with first degree murder after a woman and her large marijuana stash disappeared. The issue on appeal was whether it was open to the jury to find that unlawful confinement existed and could elevate second degree murder to first degree murder, as the Criminal Code requires. The Court held that where there is a temporal-causal connection between the unlawful confinement and the murder, as here, conviction on first degree

murder is available. The conviction was upheld.