Arguments were heard Friday morning over a delay motion filed by the lawyer representing a Winnipeg woman convicted of concealing the remains of six infants in a U-Haul storage locker.
Andrea Giesbrecht’s lawyer, Greg Brodsky, wants the conviction tossed because he said the case took too long.
The Supreme Court ruled last July legal proceedings can be presumed to be unreasonably delayed if they take more than 18 months in provincial court.
Constitutional lawyer, Michael Bodner, argued on the Crown’s behalf that the time between when Giesbrecht was charged and closing arguments in the trial was 23 and-a-half months.
Bodner told court when taking into account exceptional circumstances in the case it may in fact bring it below the 18 month ceiling.
He argued Brodsky’s delay motion should be tossed because it was filed two days before a sentencing decision and after the trial and verdict in the case.
“It’s not in the interest of justice to let a delay motion go forward this late in the proceedings,” Bodner told court. “Ideally, this should’ve been brought down when the trial dates were first booked.”
Court heard both the defense and Crown underestimated the time the trial would take and that there were unexpected delays along the way.
Judge Murray Thompson grilled Brodsky on why his delay motion was filed so late.
Brodsky replied by saying he’d recently heard of two cases where a delay motion was used and thought it applied to his client’s case.
“I didn’t withhold it, I made it when I thought of it,” Brodsky told court.
The Crown said those two most recent cases didn’t change the law and that Brodsky’s delay motion shouldn’t be allowed because the defense has no reasonable argument.
Brodksy said his client doesn’t deserve any more jail time beyond the 168 days she served in custody after her arrest.
The Crown is seeking an 11-year sentence.
