The appeal judges ordered a retrial for Richard Mallory and Robert Stewart, both of whom have spent six years in prison for the 1990 slaying of Michel Giroux and his pregnant wife, Manon Bourdeau.
The court castigated the Crown for introducing a great deal of evidence that unfairly bolstered the credibility of unreliable jailhouse witnesses and seriously prejudiced the accused men.
It also had harsh words for Crown senior prosecutor Vikki Bair, saying that her opening and closing addresses to the jury were inflammatory, demeaned the defence team, undermined the presumption of innocence, and improperly expressed personal opinions about the guilt of the accused.
The ruling added a dramatic, new twist to what has become an unparalleled legal debacle. The Mallory and Stewart prosecution was the second-longest criminal trial in Canadian history; eclipsed only by a separate trial held for two co-accused -- James Sauvé and Richard Trudel -- who were convicted of first-degree murder.
Two years ago, the convictions of Mr. Sauvé and Mr. Trudel were overturned on similar grounds.
Other errors cited by the appeal judges in the Mallory and Stewart judgment included:
Audiotaped statements Mr. Stewart made to fellow prison inmates were improperly edited to remove comments that were exculpatory.
The trial judge, Mr. Justice David McWilliam of the Ontario Superior Court, wrongly allowed the Crown to lead evidence that Mr. Sauvéhad a previous manslaughter conviction.
The Crown cross-examined the accused using information obtained from unsavoury jailhouse informants who it had determined were too unreliable to testify.
"If the Crown does not call a witness because that witness's statement is viewed as untruthful or unreliable, the Crown cannot later put suggestions to the accused during cross-examination on the basis of that statement," the court commented. "The Crown simply cannot have it both ways."
The court said Judge McWilliam was unwise to have played host to a barbeque for the trial participants after it ended. It said he also should have avoided sitting at a table alongside prosecutors and police from the trial at a social event.
