SASKATOON – The province’s highest court overturned a lower court’s attempted murder conviction against Cory Smockum calling it a “miscarriage of justice.”
A pre-trial conference has now been set for Nov. 15 in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench.
“I have concluded that a miscarriage of justice occurred, such that the conviction for attempted murder must be quashed and a new trial ordered,” wrote Justice Georgina Jackson in concurrence with Justice Jerome Tholl and Jeffrey Kalmakoff.
This also means that the dangerous offender designation against Smockum has fallen. After Smockum was convicted, a judge determined him to be a dangerous offender and imposed an indeterminate prison sentence.
Smockum’s defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle had argued before the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal that the Crown Prosecutor’s improper cross-examination unfairly prejudiced the jury, making the trial unfair.
Justice Jackson said she didn’t find the cross-examination traversed the line amounting to a miscarriage of justice but when the overall effect of this cross-examination is taken together with errors of law that she came to the conclusion that a miscarriage of justice occurred.
Justice Jackson ruled that also relevant to the conclusion that a miscarriage of justice took place was the breach of Smockum’s right to silence with the police, the reliance on his medical records for which they were not properly admissible, and the elicitation of bad character evidence.
A Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench jury had convicted Smockum, then 38, in February 2020. He was accused of attacking and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend in a garage after a quad rally in Hanley in October 2018.
The jury came to a unanimous verdict on the attempted murder charge, but couldn’t reach a verdict on two other charges of aggravated sexual assault and choking to overcome resistance. A mistrial was declared on those two charges.
Smockum’s sentencing was delayed until his dangerous offender hearing. In May 2022 a Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench Justice designated him a dangerous offender and sentenced him to an indefinite prison term.
Smockum was remanded in custody after his conviction was overturned in August.
