Judge Throws Out Murder Count Against Pickton Involving Unidentified Victim
Posted on: Thursday, 2 March 2006, 15:01 CST
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. (CP) - Accused serial killer Robert Pickton faces one less murder charge after a judge ruled he cannot be tried for killing an unidentified Jane Doe.
Justice James Williams ruled Thursday the count fails to meet the minimum requirements of the Criminal Code. Pickton was charged with 27 counts of first-degree murder involving women - most of them drug-addicted sex-trade workers, who disappeared over a stretch of years from Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside.
All the women were identified except for one referred to only as Jane Doe in the indictment.
Pickton has been in custody for three years. He pleaded not guilty on the 26 named victims on Jan. 30 but refused to enter a plea on the Jane Doe count. The court registered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
Defence lawyer Peter Ritchie said outside court at that time that he would challenge the charge - Count 22 - arguing it wasn't technically proper.
The allegations against Pickton regarding the Jane Doe murder are contained in some of the 750,000 pages of documentary material the Crown has disclosed to the defence.
Details cannot be published while the trial is in its current phase in which the judge is assessing the admissibility of evidence.
Source: Canadian Press
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