Researching "Who killed Harry?" required navigating through Canadian and Filipino justice systems, as a court in Fredericton rules on matters related to Harry Doyle鈥檚 estate, while a court in Surigao City is hearing the case of two of the four people accused of Harry鈥檚 murder.
And for someone used to the cut-and-dry Canadian legal system, wading into the waters of the Filipino system was delightful at times and very confusing at others.
English is the language of record in the Philippines, but it鈥檚 not the mother tongue in a country that has a minimum of eight dialects, and people from one island are jokingly called 鈥渇oreigners鈥� on another.
If a murder is attempted, but unsuccessful, the criminal code terms it "frustrated murder," court transcripts are 鈥渟teno-notes鈥� and the title of 鈥渁ttorney鈥� is used by lawyers the same way "doctor" or 鈥減rofessor鈥� are in Canada.
In the matter of Harry Doyle鈥檚 murder, there is a state prosecutor, but the heavy-lifting in the courtroom is done by a private prosecutor, in this case Attorney Alfonso Casurra, the former mayor of Surigao City, who was hired by Harry Doyle鈥檚 sisters.
He explained that it is important in murder cases for the victim鈥檚 family to be separately represented and to take the stand 鈥� that鈥檚 just the way it works in the Philippines.
When the artists working with police had a difficult time producing a 鈥渃artographic sketch鈥� with the eyewitnesses to the murder, the police resorted to a different investigative technique: they produced a 鈥済allery of hardened criminals鈥� 鈥� a compilation of a dozen photos of males who had been previously involved in shooting incidents.
When we ordered copies of the court transcripts, we were provided with the originals 鈥� 鈥渂ecause this is going to Canada.鈥�
The transcripts themselves are on almost-legal-sized-paper that feels like tissue, bound together with staples and string. And transcripts are something the new judge in the murder case will need, because the old judge retired halfway through the case.
