Ontario appeals ruling that declared mandatory minimum sentence unconstitutional
Posted Feb 27, 2012 07:08:03 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – The Ontario government is appealing a court decision that overturned a mandatory minimum sentence for a firearm offence as unconstitutional.
An Ontario Superior Court judge struck down a three-year minimum sentence for a first offence of illegally possessing a loaded gun as “cruel and unusual punishment.”
In a notice of appeal the Ontario government says Judge Anne Molloy erred in ruling that a three-year sentence would be “grossly disproportionate” in the circumstances of this case.
Toronto man Leroy Smickle was taking pictures of himself posing with a loaded gun when police burst into an apartment looking for someone else.
The province is arguing the five-month conditional sentence Molloy imposed instead of the three-year minimum is “demonstrably unfit.”
Ontario is asking the Court of Appeal for Ontario to declare the impugned section constitutionally valid and give Smickle a harsher sentence.
