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David Stephan

Date now set for Crown appeal in David and Collet Stephan case

Jan 14, 2020 | 4:44 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A date has now been set for the Crown’s appeal of the Sept. 19, 2019 not guilty verdict delivered by Justice Terry Clackson in the David and Collet Stephan case.

The two were found not guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life in the death of their 19-month-old son Ezekiel.

The hearing will take place June 11, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. in Calgary.

The Crown is appealing the case on the basis that Justice Clackson took into account “irrelevant considerations,” and that he erred in insisting that the Crown had to prove Ezekiel’s life would have been saved had he been taken to a doctor sooner. That, according to the Crown, established a medical standard unknown to law.

Clackson took less than five minutes to find David and Collet Stephan both not guilty.

The couple was convicted in their first trial by jury back in 2016. However, the Supreme Court of Canada set aside the conviction in May 2018 and ordered a new trial because of errors in the judge’s charge to the jury. Ezekiel died in March 2012.