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The second man whom she contracted was an undercover Mountie, posing as an experienced hit man. Their discussions were video recorded. Ms. Doucet was arrested and she admitted at her trial to having committed her offence. But she pleaded not guilty, claiming she’d been threatened by her husband, Michael Ryan, and was under duress when she tried to have him killed.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice David Farrar accepted Ms. Doucet’s testimony. “She had an intense fear of Mr. Ryan, was feeling helpless, felt she had lost control and felt she was threatened with annihilation,” he wrote in his decision, adding that “there was no other safe avenue of escape available to her.”

The judge decided that “a reasonable person … would have acted in the same manner.” Ms. Doucet had been “manipulated by the police and had no willpower to fight back,” he found, and acquitted her.

Nova Scotia’s Court of Appeal upheld the decision. But this year, Canada’s Supreme Court found that Ms. Doucet’s defence of duress “was not open to her in law” and her acquittal was struck down.

In an extraordinary move, the Supreme Court also ordered a stay of proceedings. This means Ms. Doucet cannot be tried again for her actions on the same charge. According to the Supreme Court, Ms. Doucet had suffered enough.

“It would not be fair to subject [Ms. Doucet] to another trial,” Justice Louis LeBel and Justice Thomas Cromwell wrote for the majority. “The abuse she suffered and the protracted nature of these proceedings have taken an enormous toll on her.”