Pubdate: Fri, 01 Aug 2014
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2014 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact: http://www.leaderpost.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html
Website: http://www.leaderpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Douglas Quan
Page: A7

SUPREME COURT NARROWS SCOPE OF ALLOWABLE 'MR. BIG' EVIDENCE

Police investigating cold cases may have to think twice now about 
using Mr. Big stings - the undercover operations designed to draw 
confessions from suspects - after Canada's top court Thursday laid 
out new rules to protect those targeted by them.

While the Supreme Court of Canada did not ban the use of the 
controversial technique, noting Mr. Big stings had resulted in 
hundreds of convictions, it said the elaborate operations can involve 
"powerful inducements" and "veiled threats," raising the possibility 
of unreliable confessions and abuse of power.

"Police are going to have to retool their approach to cold cases. 
They're unlikely to carry on blithely with Mr. Big scenarios because 
it's going to be hard to get them into evidence," said Russell 
Silverstein, a director with the Association in Defence of the 
Wrongfully Convicted.

In a Mr. Big operation, officers posing as members of a criminal 
organization befriend the suspect and gain the suspect's trust with 
money, booze and friendship. They get the suspect to carry out jobs 
and slowly involve him in staged criminal acts, such as money 
laundering and drug trafficking.

Eventually, a meeting is set up with the group's boss, Mr. Big, 
designed to get the suspect to cough up details of a past crime. The 
suspect might be told that police are onto him and he needs to tell 
the boss everything. Or he could be told he needs to share his past 
because it's the only way the organization can ensure his loyalty.

In its long-awaited decision, the Supreme Court said Mr. Big 
confessions should be presumed to be inadmissible and set out a 
framework for determining whether they should be allowed as evidence.

Trial judges will have to consider the extent of inducements offered 
and any threats made, as well as the sophistication and mental health 
of the accused. They must also examine the level of detail in the 
confession itself and whether the accused provided details of the 
crime that were not already public.

Judges also have to ensure that a jury isn't going to be overly 
swayed or prejudiced by "bad character" evidence stemming from the 
accused's participation in a fictitious criminal organization and 
simulated crimes. Judges must watch for police abuses, the court 
said, suggesting that police cannot be allowed to "overcome the will 
of the accused and coerce a confession" through violence or by 
preying on a suspect's vulnerabilities.

Thursday's decision stemmed from the case of Nelson Lloyd Hart, 
convicted in 2007 in Newfoundland of two counts of murder in the 
drowning deaths of his twin three-year-old daughters, Krista and Karen.

Hart, who has a Grade 5 education and was living on social 
assistance, was the target of a four-month Mr. Big sting that cost 
the RCMP $413,000. Officers pretending to be part of a criminal gang 
befriended Hart and assigned him to be a courier for the group. They 
paid him $16,000 cash, put him up in fancy hotels and fed him nice 
meals. Hart came to view them like "brothers."

During the meeting with the group's boss, Hart initially denied 
involvement in his daughters' deaths, insisting he had suffered an 
epileptic seizure - the same story he had originally told police. But 
the boss refused to accept Hart's answer, repeatedly telling him, 
"don't lie to me." Hart later said he drowned his daughters because 
he was worried his brother would gain custody of them.

In 2012, a majority of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and 
Labrador's Court of Appeal overturned Hart's conviction and ordered a 
new trial, questioning the reliability of his confession. The Crown 
appealed to the Supreme Court.

The top court Thursday said financial and social inducements provided 
to Hart raised serious doubts about the reliability of his confession.
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