Dennis Oland‘s lawyer told New Brunswick’s highest court Monday the convicted murderer should be released on bail pending an appeal of his high-profile case, saying such a move would not undermine confidence in the justice system.
Toronto lawyer Alan Gold noted Oland’s fine character, his deep roots in the community and the support of his family, which has already agreed to post a $400,000 surety if he is released pending an appeal of his conviction.
READ MORE: Judge in Oland preliminary hearing said police were too quick to accuse
Oland, 48, was sentenced last month to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years for the second-degree murder of his millionaire father Richard Oland.
Last month, Justice Marc Richard of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal said Oland was not a danger to the public, but he said that’s not a good enough reason to grant him bail. Richard said if Oland was released, confidence in the justice system would be undermined.
On Monday, Gold told a three-member Court of Appeal panel Richard’s decision should be overturned because the justice erred by suggesting bail should only be granted in exceptional circumstances.
Gold said exceptional conditions – including the recanting of witness testimony, perjury, and admission of fresh evidence – were not automatically required to grant bail for someone convicted of second-degree murder.
He cited case law to show those conditions, as cited by the Crown in previous cases, were not prerequisites for bail.
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“It wasn’t a necessary condition in every case,” he told the three-member panel.
Gold said Dennis Oland’s conviction was considered closer to manslaughter on the spectrum of murder cases, and he reminded the three justices that his client’s parole ineligibility period was the lowest it could be at 10 years.
Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau said the panel would reserve its decision until a later, unspecified date.
However, Drapeau made it clear that the court would like to see Dennis Oland’s appeal dealt with as soon as possible. To expedite matters, he set a tentative date for a week-long hearing to begin on Oct. 18 in Fredericton.
In its notice of appeal, the defence argued the verdict was “an unreasonable verdict in law and not one that a reasonable jury, properly instructed, could judicially have arrived at.”
No convicted murderer has ever been granted bail while awaiting appeal in New Brunswick, but it has happened in other provinces.
If the appeal of the bail decision fails, Gold has said an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is unlikely.
The body of Richard Oland was discovered face down in a pool of blood in his Saint John office on July 7, 2011. He had suffered 45 blunt- and sharp-force blows to his head, neck and hands.
No murder weapon was ever found.
Dennis Oland was convicted in December.
Oland’s mother Connie and wife Lisa have issued statements saying Dennis Oland has been wrongly convicted and they are confident the appeal of the bail decision will be granted.
Replay the live blog of Monday’s court proceedings:
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