Evidence in 2012 murder conviction questioned at Jacques Delisle's bail hearing
Ontario pathologist’s conclusions differ from autopsy report in 2009 death of ex-Quebec judge's wife
A forensic pathologist called to testify at the bail hearing for Jacques Delisle on Wednesday questioned the evidence submitted when he was convicted of killing his wife in 2012.
Defence lawyers for Delisle, the only Canadian judge ever convicted of first-degree murder, are trying to make the case he should be freed from prison while the Federal Justice Department has another look at his case in the death of his wife, Nicole Rainville.
The Crown is opposing the release of Delisle, 81.
Dr. Michael Shkrum, a pathologist from London, Ont., and a witness for the defence, told a Quebec City courtroom during his second day of testimony why his conclusions were very different from the ones presented at trial four years ago.
The pathologist who conducted Rainville's autopsy, Dr. André Bourgault, concluded the bullet that killed her went through her left temple, and lodged itself in the back of her head.
The Crown argued this was consistent with a person firing the gun while standing in front of the woman, who was in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke in 2007.
Shkrum, however, put those conclusions into question.
"The fragments of the bullet should follow the same trajectory (as the bullet), but they don't in the path suggested by Dr.Bourgault," he told the court.
The Crown cross-examined Shkrum Wednesday afternoon.
Bourgault will also be called to testify to defend his work.
Since his conviction in 2012, the former judge has continued to insist on his innocence.
In the joint investigation by the fifth estate and Enquête last year, three independent forensic experts reviewed the evidence in Delisle's case and concluded it pointed to suicide, not murder — corroborating Delisle's confession that, while he did not murder his wife, he did supply her with the gun that she used to kill herself.