A decision on the appeal of convicted serial killer Robert Pickton will be announced on Friday. (CBC)The Supreme Court of Canada will rule Friday on whether convicted serial killer Robert William Pickton will get a new trial.
Pickton, a former B.C. pig farmer, was found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder in December 2007 in the deaths of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Georgina Papin, Marnie Frey and Brenda Wolfe.
He was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for at least 25 years.
However, Pickton's lawyers have argued the judge's last-minute instruction to the jury robbed their client of a fair trial.
The jury had asked the judge whether they could convict Pickton without being certain he was the only person involved in killing the six women.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams said it was sufficient to find Pickton was an active participant.
However, the Crown's entire case against Pickton was based on evidence that he acted alone.
Pickton's defence lawyers argued that the judge's statement gave the jury a wider net to convict him.
"Coming and throwing something in at the end doesn't make the process very fair," said criminal lawyer Donna Turko, who has paid close attention to the case but was not involved in it.
Pickton faces 20 more charges
Pickton was originally charged with 26 counts of first-degree murder but the judge severed the other 20 cases from the trial.
Clockwise from top left: Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe. (CBC)The Crown has already announced that if the appeal succeeds, Pickton will face a second trial on all 26 charges.
However, if the convictions are upheld on Friday, he will not be tried on the remaining 20 cases.
Maggie de Vries' sister, Sarah de Vries, is one of the other 20 women Pickton is accused of killing.
"A trial in Sarah's case — as long as Robert Pickton is already in jail for the rest of his life — doesn't feel like it's necessary to me," she said.
"I felt as if, in a sense, [the other six women] were standing in for my sister and they were giving me the gift of not having to sit in a courtroom and listen to whatever the evidence would be about Sarah."
But Rick Frey, whose daughter Marnie Frey is also among the other women, said a part of him is anxious to see Pickton retried for his daughter's death.
"I hope he gets his damn appeal and I hope more of this crap comes out."
Frey said he can stomach hearing the horrific evidence that Pickton killed and butchered his victims, if it means he's held accountable for the deaths of 20 more.
"If he doesn't win his appeal, they'll stay the rest of the charges. Where does that leave the rest of the families?"
His wife, Lynn Frey, also said she can steel herself for a new trial.
But she said Marnie's daughter, who is just about to celebrate her 18th birthday, is hoping for something else.
"She said to me, 'The only thing I really want for my birthday is to know that that son of a bitch will never, ever get out of jail and he'll never be able to hurt anyone else.'"
An end to Pickton's legal appeals would also allow the Frey family to reclaim Marnie's remains, which are still being held as evidence.
Families call for public inquiry
The de Vries and other families would like to see a public inquiry into the case, looking into how Pickton was able to kill so many women over so many years.
The decision on Pickton's appeal comes more than 10 years after news stories began to link the disappearances of women from Vancouver's darkest corners.
Families of the missing women have accused Vancouver police of mishandling the investigation from the beginning by ignoring evidence that a serial killer was at work.
The police would often suggest that because some of the women had drug addictions or worked as prostitutes, they were transient by nature and could have just moved on.
But the families became more vocal in their demands that something be done, setting up tribute websites for their daughters or keeping reporters and police on speed dial.
The RCMP became involved in 2001, nearly 20 years after women started disappearing from the Downtown Eastside.
The first charges against Pickton were laid in 2002 after police focused their efforts on a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, outside of Vancouver, in search of evidence.
The Pickton case is the largest serial killer investigation in Canadian history.
With files from The Canadian Press
