MONTREAL – The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected a request to hear Guy Turcotte’s appeal on Thursday.
In a controversial verdict in 2011, Turcotte was found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder for the deaths of his two young children, a verdict that meant that Turcotte was unable to know, at the time, that he was doing something wrong.
Turcotte was eventually deemed fit for release from a mental institution, where he’d remained in custody for 46 months.
In November, an arrest warrant was issued for Turcotte, just hours after the Quebec Court of Appeal tossed out the verdict and ordered a new trial.
READ MORE: Guy Turcotte turns himself in to face new trial for children’s murder
The Crown said that it believes the trial judge should never have offered the not-criminally-responsible option. It also argued that the jury was not correctly instructed and the judge did not sufficiently review the evidence with the jury.
In a bid to overturn the Quebec Court of Appeal retrial decision, Turcotte took his case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Watch: Turcotte case goes to the Supreme Court
Turcotte is now expected to appear in court in April to face a new trial on the two charges of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his young children.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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