December 17, 1997
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Maybe now the punishment will fit the crime,” said Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of the pro-life movement in Canada.
Mr Hughes was responding to news today that the Saskatchewan Justice Department will appeal the Dec. 1 sentence of Robert Latimer, the Wilkie-area farmer convicted of second-degree murder in the “mercy- killing” of his 12-year-old daughter Tracy, who was disabled.
Tracy had not expressed a desire to be killed. Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench Justice Ted Noble granted an unprecedented constitutional exemption from the mandatory 10-year minimum sentence for the crime, sentencing Latimer instead to two years less a day.
“Justice Noble's decision is chilling,” Mr Hughes remarked. “In effect, it means Canadians with disabilities don't enjoy the same legal protection other Canadians enjoy. It means they're second-class citizens.”“Allowed to stand, Justice Noble's ruling would enshrine this 'compassionate homicide' craziness in law,” Mr Hughes continued. “The ruling basically says, 'Latimer's a killer, but he's a nice killer.' From the reaction in the op-ed pages of the country, I'd say a lot of people disagree. A lot of people haven't forgotten that Tracy was the victim here, and that the law is supposed to protect the innocent, not excuse the guilty.”“Some people support Justice Noble's decision,” Mr Hughes concluded, “pointing to precedents of reduced sentences for people who act out of rage or some blind passion