The prosecution in the Ibrahim Ali murder case says it will take three days next week trying to prove five years, two months and 29 days was not an unreasonable delay in getting to the end of Ali's trial.
A B.C. Supreme Court jury found Ali guilty in December of first-degree murder in the death of a 13-year-old girl, whose body was found in Burnaby's Central Park on July 18, 2017.
The girl's name is protected by a publication ban.
Ali's legal team has filed a so-called "Jordan" application to have his conviction thrown out because of court delays.
If the application were granted, Ali would go free without a sentence.
Defence lawyer Kevin McCullough was in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Tuesday and Wednesday making his case before Justice Lance Bernard.
Relying on nearly 4,000 pages of scheduling transcripts, McCullough argued the defence was responsible for just three months of delay out of the 63 months between Ali being charged in September 2018 and the end of his trial this past December.
What pushed the trial over the 30-month ceiling set by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. vs. Jordan, according to McCullough was not the defence but a "culture of complacency" on the part of the Crown and Justice Bernard.
Central to the delays, McCullough argued, was Bernard's decision in August 2020 to deny a request by Ali's original defence team to have the case adjourned because of a double booking with another case.
The reason the request was denied, according to McCullough, was that Bernard expected the jury trial to start sometime in 2021.
But Ali's entire legal team quit for "ethical reasons" just days after their adjournment request was denied, setting the case back while a new defence team came on board – and the trial didn't start until April 2023.
McCullough said it was "obvious" Ali's original defence team stepped away because their adjournment application had been denied, and he argued the Crown and court should have done more to figure out whether that was the case and then tried to find a solution instead of letting Ali's lawyers quit.
“By not granting the adjournment application and then allowing the withdrawal without the inquiry that was necessary, effectively doomed this case,” McCullough said.
He wrapped up his argument Wednesday morning.
The Crown will present its response starting Monday.
Crown prosecutor Daniel Porte told the court he expected to take three days presenting a “very lengthy” argument and a 100-page timeline breaking down the 63 months between Ali’s charges and the end of his trial.
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