Lawyer Paul Calarco argued at the Appeal Court earlier this month that one ground for Rafferty's appeal is that the jury should have considered that he might have been only an accessory after the fact to Tori's brutal murder. There are arguable issues on appeal, Rosenberg ruled. Rafferty's trial heard that he and his former girlfriend, Terri-Lynne McClintic, lured Tori from her school in Woodstock, Ont., and drove to a secluded field, where the Grade 3 student was sexually assaulted and brutally beaten to death in April 2009.
Rosenberg ordered the case sent back to Legal Aid Ontario for reconsideration, but if Rafferty is still turned down, the lawyer who represented him on this motion will be appointed for the appeal and he will be paid by the attorney general for Ontario. Rafferty, 33, had been turned down four times by Legal Aid since his convictions in May 2012 for first-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping in Tori's death. "In my opinion it is desirable in the interests of justice that the appellant be represented," Rosenberg wrote.ĭuty counsel provide a "remarkable service" to unrepresented inmates, but they can't be expected to take on a case this complex, with some arguments involving "an attack on the tactical decisions made by very experienced trial counsel," Rosenberg wrote. Michael Rafferty's case is too complex for someone with a Grade 9 education in segregation and with no access to a law library to handle on his own with the assistance of duty counsel, Appeal Court Justice Marc Rosenberg ruled. TORONTO - The man convicted of killing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford should get a publicly funded lawyer as he tries to appeal, Ontario's highest court ruled Tuesday.
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