Jeez, with all that evidence it wouldn’t have been a long deliberation. I’d need 15 min tops; 2 to vote and 13 to sit around and shoot the shit.
Its not quite an open and shut case, so they probably deliberated lengthily for that reason. Although I suspect an appeal would be dismissed, at least the lawyer stuck with it has an arguable case, which is quite rare in Criminal Appeals.
With the son and the father, guilt seems pretty clear to me. However, I didn’t see the newspapers reporting evidence that the mother took part in the murders, so the jury may have spent most of its time debating whether she was guilty.
On the news. last evening, they were taking opinions of Muslims on the street, as it were, and they were universally in favour of the verdict. The reporter could not find anyone willing to speak against it, in fact. Apparently, the trial and verdict were being covered by a lot of international press. I wonder how this verdict is playing in other areas of the world?
Judging from wire taps excepts it’s clear that Yahya knew of the murders (she clearly approved of Zainab’s death). Also judging from her behaviour before/after the murders I just don’t reasonably see how she could be NOT involved. She was physically there along with Shafia, she knowingly approves of (at least one) of the deaths, she hasn’t even tried to once separate herself from the actions of the others. She showed herself to be as active in this crime as the other two.
Maybe she sat on her arse and did nothing? Maybe she watched? I don’t know, but the evidence and actions point to them as a group. She’s just as guilty as the rest of them. Though, if I have some facts wrong I’d be willing to change my mind.
Under Canadian law, complicity makes her guilty of the offence of murder as well:
CNN.com’s coverage of the case: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/30/world/americas/canada-honor-murder/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
From the Globe and Mail link:
The ignition was in the “off” position…prosecution said that was because one of the murderers had had to reach inside and put the car into first gear so it would move forward
How could it move forward if the ignition was off?
Christie Blatchford has an interesting take on the matter in her National Post column today. Link. As might be expected from Blatchford, she’s dug a little deeper into the matter and found more facts than the news stories currently running.
I believe it was pushed by the other car. Thus the broken taillight on the Nissan, and the broken headlight on the Lexus.
I weep.
Get a manual car (so, not an automatic transmission). Put the car in first gear. Turn the car off. It’ll roll just fine if the emergency break is off.
I know this because, as a green driver, I made this mistake many, many times in my dad’s fancy BMW :smack:. Luckily, never so badly that he found out :D.
Oh, or that I murdered anybody. That too.
Seems like you’d be pushing it dead engine, but if you’re doing it with another car, it probably doesn’t matter. 
Either way, engine on or off- stalled or not, without a brake on of some sort, that bad boy is going to roll just the same.
Objection! Argumentative! Further, Your Honor, is there a question here?
I usually think of Christie Blatchford as a loathsome troll, but her reporting on this case has been top tier. I had no idea she was capable of being sensitive and circumspect, but holy crap - she pulled it off time and again over the last couple of years.
“You might do it, if you thought they were whores?”
I remember hearing about one of the rescue divers said that it was strange when nobody got out of the car. The water was shallow enough that anyone in reasonable health should have been able to get out. That mystifies me, since I do believe that the ‘survivors’ in the family are guilty.
I understand that the 19 and 17 year-olds had boyfriends that the family were upset about, but what did 13 year-old Geeti do that she deserved to die? Was that just a pre-emptive honor killing as she had reached puberty? Were they going to take out the youngest daughter when she reached puberty or wait for her to find a guy first?
“What sense does it make to kill two girls (and their mother) while leaving the last 13 year old alive? Geeti’ll clearly know the score and help convict the rest of us; best to wipe out the entire Rona clan. It’s the only way.”