HALIFAX—The jury rose in a Halifax courtroom and declared Nicholas Butcher guilty, bringing another high-profile murder trial to a close in Halifax.

But that April 28 verdict may not be the end of the story for the jurors, whose experience can bring long-term anguish.

Mark Farrant followed the Butcher trial from afar. The Toronto-based marketing professional has kept an eye on jury trials around the country ever since serving as a juror himself and becoming an advocate. He says Canada’s provincial and federal governments are failing jurors – people who fulfill an often-dreaded civic duty – by ignoring their need for mental health support.

“Jurors are in many cases more vulnerable to trauma than anybody else in the courtroom,” said Farrant in an interview. “Jury duty isn't a vocation, you don't wake up when you're 12 years old and say 'I want to be a professional juror.' It's a civic duty, so people are brought in from all walks of life, but they're not trauma trained, they're not trauma informed…it can be very, very stressful."

Farrant knows first hand how gruelling it can be to serve as a juror, having been selected for jury duty in 2014 in the murder trial of Farshad Badakhshan – a trial that lasted four months. When it was over, he started experiencing symptoms of PTSD.

“I just couldn't get some of the images out of my head, and couldn't return to my normal day-to-day life, and it just managed to get worse and worse and worse and worse,” he said.

Farrant called the courthouse, figuring they would be able to help him, or at least point him in the direction of someone who could. But he said they offered him nothing. He had to embark on a “dizzying” search for counselling by himself, and pay for it out of his own pocket, he said.

After three weeks at trial, 12 jurors in Halifax found Butcher guilty of second-degree murder at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Butcher was convicted in the 2016 homicide of Kristin Johnston.

Jurors in the Butcher trial heard from 32 witnesses. As part of the Crown’s evidence, they listened to 911 tape with the voice of a distressed Butcher announcing that he’d killed Johnston and tried to kill himself.

Jurors were also provided hundreds of pages of evidence including gruesome crime scene photos. Some of those images were shared through the media, such as a photo of the bloody saw Butcher used to cut off his hand. Graphic evidence can take a toll on jurors, as was Farrant’s experience, but he said they can also experience shame and guilt after reaching a verdict, especially if the jury’s decision doesn’t mesh with public opinion. Sometimes, he said, the evidence just doesn’t meet the criteria for a verdict that may seem obvious to outside observers.

The Butcher trial was the fourth high-profile murder case tried before a Halifax jury in the last year. William Sandeson was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Taylor Samson in June 2017, Christopher Garnier was found guilty of the second-degree murder of Catherine Campbell in December 2017, and Randy Riley was convicted of the second-degree murder of Donald Smith just 12 days before Butcher’s conviction.

Farrant said the resources available to jurors in Nova Scotia are paltry.

A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Department of Justice provided StarMetro with information about the province’s juror support program by email.

The Department of Justice gives two pages of information to jurors after “difficult” trials. The handout lists in bullet points what a traumatic stress response can look like, and how the passage of time can help traumatized jurors feel better.

“If you feel you need assistance immediately, and it is not covered by your Health Plan or you do not have an Employee Assistance Plan, the Department of Justice may be able to help,” the handout reads.

At the discretion of a judge, jurors can be eligible to receive $85 towards a counselling session.

The Department of Justice did not say how they decide if a trial is “difficult” enough to warrant sharing the handout with jurors, nor whether any of the recent murder trials in Halifax were deemed so.

StarMetro requested an interview with the Department of Justice to ask for more details about the program, but the request went unanswered.

Farrant said judges should not be the gatekeepers to juror support; it’s an unnecessary barrier. He also said $85 does not come close to covering an average session with a trauma-trained counsellor.

“Without an open and transparent juror assistance program, you don’t really have a juror assistance program,” he said.

After lobbying the federal justice department, Farrant said he was glad to see the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights launch a study last year into the experiences of Canadian jurors. Farrant testified before the committee along with other jurors, experts on law and psychology, provincial governments and others.

Committee spokesperson Julie Geoffrion said in an email that a report and recommendations from their study are in the works and should soon be available to the public.

Farrant said he hopes the recommendations include a national standard for post-trial support for jurors – something that provinces will have to adopt into practice.

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As it stands, juror support in Canada differs by region. It varies from Prince Edward Island, which has no post-trial support program, to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, which offer counselling services through a third party company, Morneau Shepell.

Addressing the mental-health needs of jurors is not only the compassionate thing to do, said Farrant, but it will make the justice system stronger as well.

"We owe it to jurors to support them after the verdict is delivered,” he said.

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