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Tanovich said he was shocked by two things: first, that the Crown prosecutor did not argue for a limit on peremptory challenges, and second, that the Crown did not ask for potential jurors to be vetted for bias.

“That also then got me thinking about and wondering about the conduct of the prosecution and what sort of job they would do throughout the entire trial,” Tanovich said.

After the two-week trial, the jury found Stanley not guilty of murder. Stanley had testified that he grabbed a pistol to fire warning shots into the air and the bullet that killed Boushie accidentally discharged from the gun as a result of a hang fire — a rare phenomenon where there is a delay between when the trigger is pulled and when the gun goes off.

A Crown expert testified that a hang fire cannot last longer than half a second. A defence expert did not speculate on how long a hang fire could last. It’s not clear how long Stanley’s fatal hang fire was, but based on his testimony it would have been at least several seconds.

The only evidence presented at the trial suggesting a hang fire could have lasted that long came from two non-experts who were called as defence witnesses. One said he experienced a hang fire more than 40 years ago when he was out hunting gophers.

Tanovich said that evidence should never have gone before the jury.

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“It surprised me that there was no objection from the Crown or even a concern by the trial judge,” Tanovich said. “That kind of evidence just simply made a mockery of the trial … It was almost like a trial without law.”