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New Brunswick Crown will not appeal acquittal in Oland murder trial

New Brunswick Crown will not appeal acquittal in Oland murder trial
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New Brunswick Crown will not appeal acquittal in Oland murder trial

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick’s Public Prosecution Services announced Tuesday they will not appeal last month’s acquittal of Dennis Oland on a charge of second-degree murder in the 2011 bludgeoning death of his multi-millionaire father, Richard.

Oland, 51, was charged with the killing in 2013 and spent close to a year in prison after being convicted by a jury in 2015. That verdict was overturned on appeal in 2016 and the new trial ordered — this time before judge alone.

In his July 19 decision, Justice Terrence Morrison of the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench said Crown prosecutors failed to prove their case against Oland.

“More than suspicion is needed to convict someone of murder,” the judge said. “In short, I am not satisfied the Crown has proved beyond reasonable doubt that it was Dennis Oland who killed Richard Oland.”

Morrison also said he “cannot accept outright the accused’s denial of guilt.” He said there was much to implicate Oland in the crime, including blood stains containing his father’s DNA on the jacket he was wearing the day of the killing in Saint John, N.B.

But the presumption of innocence and the need for proof beyond a reasonable doubt are high standards in law, he said, and they were not overcome by prosecutors.