CANADA
Judges release growing number accused of violent crimes due to COVID-19 fears
Judges release growing number accused of violent crimes due to COVID-19 fears
One is the accused getaway driver for a recent Toronto murder attempt. Another allegedly pistol-whipped and Tasered two in Ottawa over a drug debt. A third was allegedly involved in a Toronto strip mall
shooting.
A growing number of suspects arrested on serious criminal charges have been ordered released from custody in recent weeks by judges concerned about the spread of
COVID-19 in Canada’s prisons.
“These are extraordinary, dire times,” a judge wrote Monday in a decision ordering the release of a man accused of firing a bullet through his ex-girlfriend’s apartment window in Hamilton, Ont.
Although the courts have effectively shut down due to the pandemic, they have heard from detainees arguing they should be released from custody because of the new coronavirus.
A flurry of court decisions suggest that even those accused of violent crimes are winning release. As one judge wrote, the pandemic had “reordered the usual calculus.”
wow, someone living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, I guess