VANCOUVER - An appeal hearing in the Robert Pickton murder case has been tentatively set for nine days in Vancouver starting March 30, 2009.
In a case management conference Monday, Crown lawyer Gregory Fitch told the B.C. Court of Appeal that prosecutors and defence lawyers will prepare an agreed statement of facts for the case on the nature of the investigation, search of Pickton's property and evidence heard at the trial.
Six issues will form the basis of the appeal for each side, said Fitch, director of Criminal Appeals and Special Prosecutions for the British Columbia government.
Fitch told Chief Justice Lance Finch of the B.C. Court of Appeal that lawyers will also have an agreed statement of facts relevant to each of the issues they'll argue at the hearing on six second-degree murder convictions handed to Pickton last December.
Among those issues will be the charge to the jury by Justice James Williams, in which he said jurors could convict even if they found Pickton did not act alone.
Fitch told the court that lawyers need hard copies of the trial transcripts and pre-trial hearings, which will be available in June, to make culling the material needed easier for the lawyers working on the appeal, many of whom were not involved in the trial.
He said the material -- from 109 days of the trial and about nine months from pre-trial hearings -- would amount to about 100 volumes. Each volume contains about 200 pages.
"It's unfortunate there has to be so much paper,'' said Finch, although he said the request sounded practical and reasonable so the lawyers could prepare their case.
Fitch also said lawyers need discs of electronic copies because the search capabilities of the current format are limited.
Attorney General Wally Oppal has said Pickton will not face trial on another 20 counts of murder unless the six murder convictions from his first trial are overturned on appeal.
But if the B.C. Court of Appeal rejects Pickton's appeal on the six counts of second-degree murder, then the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch will drop its plans for the trial on the remaining 20 murders Pickton stands accused of committing, Oppal said.
Most of the women Pickton was accused of killing were prostitutes from Vancouver's drug-riddled Downtown Eastside.
