is set to rule Friday on whether Jeremy Skibicki, the man charged with the first-degree murders of four First Nations women and accused of dumping their bodies in landfills, is to be tried by a judge alone because of concerns that a jury would be biased against him.
For three days this week, as Mr. Skibicki sat silently with his feet shackled and his back facing theof the alleged victims in attendance, Court of King’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal heard from the defence that there has been too much pretrial publicity for the case to be decided by an impartial jury. Two experts – Quito Maggi, president of Mainstreet Research; and Christine Ruva, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida – testified via video call about the poll. Mr. Maggi spoke on Monday about the veracity of his firm’s data and sample size, while Dr. Ruva was cross-examined on Tuesday about the poll questions which she helped formulate.
The judge questioned Dr. Ruva about alternatives. “So, the solution is what?” he asked her. “Get rid of jury trials in high-profile cases?” “Even when there is significant pretrial publicity, not everybody is found guilty,” prosecutor Chris Vanderhooft said. During the vetting process, the judge asked each candidate seven questions that were agreed upon by the Crown and defence to assess their potential bias. At least five of the selected jurors said they had not heard of the case prior to being in court.
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