Coroner’s charge to Ashley Smith jury delayed by challenge to submission

An objection to a final submission on what caused the death of a teen in her segregation cell delayed the inquest coroner’s charge to the jury on Monday.

At issue was whether coroner’s counsel, Jocelyn Speyer, had told the Ashley Smith jurors the verdict of homicide was legally unavailable to them.

The family and others have urged jurors to find an order given by senior prison management to guards to stay out of Smith’s cell significantly contributed to her death.

If that’s the case, they said, a verdict of homicide could apply.

In her final submission last week, Speyer suggested it was impossible to say if the teen would have survived absent such an order.

Asking whether the order contributed to the teen’s death was the “wrong question” in terms of verdict, Speyer told jurors.

Smith’s family lawyer, Julian Roy, supported by others, said the submission was at worst improper.

“At minimum, it creates the potential for real confusion on the part of the jury,” Roy told the presiding coroner, Dr. John Carlisle.

Jurors have to decide on the facts, and could find enough evidence to support a homicide verdict, the lawyer said.

“The failure to do something can indirectly contribute significantly to death,” Roy said.

He and others called on Carlisle to issue a “correction” in his jury charge, which was to have begun first thing Monday.

Speyer, also supported by several parties, objected to the characterization of her submission last Thursday as improper or misleading.

What she was doing, she said, was pointing out conflicting evidence that would detract from a homicide verdict, as she did with regard to other potential verdicts, such as suicide.

As a result, she suggested that “undetermined” was an appropriate verdict.

She never told jurors or implied that homicide was not a verdict legally open to them to find, Speyer said.

“You should rely on what you heard on Thursday,” Speyer told Carlisle.

“You are uniquely positioned, because you, like the jury, are impartial.”

Carlisle said he would consider the various positions before charging the jury, likely later Monday afternoon.

Smith, 19, of Moncton, N.B., strangled herself in her segregation cell in Kitchener, Ont., in October 2007.

The inquest has heard how guards, who had previously rushed in to save the chronically self-harming teen, hesitated because of orders from senior management to stay out of her cell as long as she was still breathing.

The family argues the guards’ hesitation to intervene given the order contributed significantly to her death.

Other parties, including Speyer, argue it’s too simplistic to make that assertion given the multitude of factors in the case.

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