
B.C. court finds Criminal Code first-degree murder parole provision unconstitutional
The B.C. Supreme Court has found a section of the Criminal Code unconstitutional because it treats all offenders convicted of first-degree murder the same, regardless of the number of people they kill.
The court ruled in a decision released this week that the code’s provision requiring first-degree murderers be sentenced to 25 years in prison before being eligible for parole violated Charter guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment.
The case involves the murder of Caroline Bernard who was beaten to death with a baseball bat by her former partner Luciano Mariani while in her Bowser, B.C., home on Vancouver Island.
Mariani pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in June 2023, but he challenged the law requiring him to serve 25 years before being eligible for parole.