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Pickton Guilty of Second-Degree Murder
Verdict closes one chapter but this story is far from over.
There was a measure of long-delayed closure Sunday for the loved ones of six murdered women as a jury found Robert William Pickton guilty on all six charges of second-degree murder.
The victims – Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Andrea Joesbury, Georgina Papin, Mona Wilson and Brenda Wolfe – were among 65 women who went missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside over two decades before police raided Pickton’s Port Coquitlam pig farm in 2002 and ultimately charged him with 26 murders.
Michael Petrie, who headed up the Crown’s case, said he was pleased with the second-degree convictions even though had asked the jury to find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder.
“It’s a life sentence,” he told reporters after the verdict came down.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams will decide the terms of Pickton’s parole eligibility – between 10 and 25 years – at Tuesday’s sentencing.
Outside the New Westminster courthouse, the families of the other 20 women Pickton is accused of killing stressed the importance of a second trial that would address their grievances.
B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said it was too early to make any definitive decisions on that front but the Crown said it would continue to proceed with charges relating to the deaths of the other 20 women.
In the meantime, police say there are still 39 missing women in Vancouver, many of them sex workers.
Simon Fraser University criminologist John Lowman has argued that current prostitution laws make the sex trade more lethal by pushing it onto the street. To support his claims, he tracked the number of Vancouver sex workers murdered between 1964 and 1999. The first of over 100 reported homicides occurred in 1975, the same year city police shut down the two main off-street meeting points.
A number of local women’s advocacy groups are taking steps such as challenging the constitutionality of Canada’s prostitution laws and pushing for a co-operative brothel in the city in the hopes of improving safety for sex workers.
But others oppose legalizing or decriminalizing prostitution, fearing such a step would normalize the exploitation of women and increase human trafficking.
It’s a difficult question and disappearances are not limited to sex workers nor to the Downtown Eastside. In October, the RCMP doubled to 18 the number of women gone missing or found dead along Highway 16 – known as the Highway of Tears – between Prince George and Prince Rupert.
But the Downtown Eastside has the most shocking numbers and former sex worker Trisha Baptie is one of many who says nothing much has changed there in recent years.
In other words, Sunday's verdict was a first step towards justice but there still isn't much cause for celebration. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Jeffrey J.
4 years ago
Pickton's Nightclub
And lets not forget that the Picton clan was associated with a busy nightclub on their property. Which was well attended by lower mainland business and other people. All men I assume. Could that not be the real story, that our society still condones nightclubs where women are semi enslaved by people like Mr. Pickton? Just a thought. Great article.
Jeffrey J.
4 years ago
Piggy's Palace
I found the link. Chilling.
"Seven or so years ago, a longshoreman, who asked not to be named and currently lives in an apartment building in Sunrise Hastings, Vancouver, BC, went with an "old friend/coworker from the railway" to a "Halloween bash [at Piggy's Palace]."
He described the night to The Stranger in these hellish terms: "I arrived at the party at about 9:00 p.m. It was dark and raining and muddy, and there were lots of motorcycles, old cars, and a big pig roasting on a spit. There were kids in costumes, some dressed as witches. The little kids were running around, and playing in the dark. There wasn't much light. There were lots of women, who looked like hookers.... The party spilled all over the grounds and there were people in the house and in the trailer doing the wild thing. I recall walking by a shack with a 40-watt light bulb hanging over the door and machinery was running inside. Here, I got a death chill. The hairs raised on the back of my neck and my feet froze to the ground. I didn't want to be there anymore, so I left and walked home."
"I only went once and I'd never go again," said an unnamed woman in a wonderful short article that was published in the Now (a Port Coquitlam newspaper) a few days after Pickton was served a warrant by the police. "It's a very raunchy crowd, lots of cocaine, lots of really, really bad, badass people.... I did not want to be a part of it."
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=16079
Working Memory
4 years ago
Vancouver Sun blames police ...
How could this have gone on so long?
Today (12/10/07) in the Vancouver Sun journalists blame police, but I'm wondering why news media never raised more of an issue.
Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun journalist wrote today, "Society is guilty too ..." and Ian Mulgrew, Sun columnist also wrote, "VDP appears to have been blind during the 90's."
The Vancouver Sun takes no responsibility for this tragedy, but they love to take credit for keeping our community apprised of other issues that they have a vested in interest in, like driving up real estate prices and boosting the Olympics.
They're going to argue that they did ring a warning bell. Well if they did, what happened? Either no one reads their publication or they didn't preform their civic duty in the manner they allude.
Which is it?
Cerniteg is only half right when he says society is guilty too. Unfortunately, local mainstream news media also has to accept responsibility.
Now that international journalists like Dan Rather are making an issue of the homeless issue in Vancouver, mainstream news media are jumping on the bandwagon.
What took you guys so long?
Skywalker
4 years ago
The first might have been
The first might have been second degree but you can't have six unless you can prove they were not premeditated and killed at the same time. Six on second degree is an outrage.
snert
4 years ago
It's the best your gonna get.
Who are you outraged at, the jury?
Skywalker
4 years ago
well snert!
Unless all were murdered at the same time, six 2nd degree guilty verdicts is not logical. All this proves is that a lawyer can smooth over the culprits actions, propose implausible theories and cast doubt that the accused is not a murderous evil animal. He did it but he didn't plan to do it? He did it but he might have had an accomplice? Yeah right. How many did he have to murder before society has the guts to send him where he belongs? Eligible for parole in ten years? Maybe the next jury will end this circus.
alive
4 years ago
some Judgment
YES! just see how Conrad Black managed to get off so easy!
It helps to have a Lawyer muddy the waters and make people think they need to feel sorry for the A-holes
snert
4 years ago
That didn't happen
Please find the link between the murders and the premeditation. It wasn't there or it was tenuous at best. I doubt that short of a full blown confession the police had nothing solid.
First degree murder has an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years. Second degree murder has the same life sentence only the judge can set the parole eligibility at anywhere between 10 and 25 years.
The time to get upset is if a judge chooses anything other than full term in a case like this. Similarly, can you imagine a board granting parole?
Do you see Clifford Olson walking the streets? Remember, it is a life sentence.
Skywalker
4 years ago
Snert
How is the sixth (and there are more) murder not premeditation? Should the public have to worry about what a judge might do or what a parole board might do for the next 25 years?
I also very much doubt Clifford Olsen got second degree convictions.
snert
4 years ago
Skywalker
Quit being picky.
It matters not. It is unlikely he will see the light of day again, ever. Save your outrage for another day. FWIW If this were Utah I would gladly throw my name in the hat for the firing squad, but it's not. Life goes on!
Skywalker
4 years ago
And your counterpoint is not picky.
You want more examples of legal stupidity. In the U.S. a football player gets 23 months for killing dogs and in BC a couple of young thugs get 10 months for putting a guy into a wheelchair for life. Oh but let's move on right.
Now because I express outrage you will undoubtedly assume that I will forever be consumed by outrage. Sorry to disappoint you I will forget the murderer very quickly without patronizing from you.
snert
4 years ago
Then why the outrage.
Sorry, I just don't consider it "legal stupidity." The end will be the same no matter the means.
Would you accept an aquittal on appeal of a first degree murder conviction? Would that be more acceptable or would the rage still be out?
RickW
4 years ago
Skywalker
I phoned this into CBC's The Current, almost word for word.
Should have been one 2nd degree, but the rest were definitely pre-meditated!
This guy needs to be tied to a rock and set out at low tide............
Dave2
4 years ago
Unanimity or Mistrial
Second degree murder is certainly a compromise; keep in mind that all 12 jurors had to come to a unanimous decision, if a few holdouts refused to convict on 1st degree, you risk a hung jury and a mistrial. Been there, done that.
Also, Olson plead guilty to 1st degree murder, no jury trial was necessary
realisticman
4 years ago
Let's hope
That for the sake of vulnerable women the Vancouver City councilors will in future not deny the police the increase in manpower they ask for, as they have in the past.