VANCOUVER - Serial killer Robert Pickton will find out Friday whether the country's highest court will grant him a new trial.
But no matter what the high court decides, a man whose sister's DNA was recovered from Pickton's farm said the families of his victims, proven and alleged, will still be devastated.
Ernie Crey said Tuesday he doesn't want to see a new trial for Pickton because the convictions for six counts of second-degree murder at least gives some families a legal closure.
"None of the families, including my family, will ever have an emotional, spiritual closure, because we have to live with the reality of a missing loved one for the remainder of our days."
Crey's sister, Dawn, was one of six women whose DNA was found during an extensive forensic investigation on Pickton's pig farm but police said the evidence wasn't enough to bring a charge.
Pickton was charged in the deaths of 26 women. In December 2007, after an 11-month trial on six of those charges, he was convicted of second-degree murder in all six.
He appealed those convictions all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada on the grounds that the judge made a mistake in his instructions to the jury.
Pickton's lawyer, Gil McKinnon, argued at a hearing before the court in March that the former pig farmer did not receive a fair trial when he was convicted in the deaths of the sex-trade workers from Vancouver's squalid Downtown Eastside.
But B.C. prosecutor John Gordon told the court that no errors were made by the judge at Pickton's trial -- and even if there were errors, they were so minor they do not warrant a new trial.
The Crown contends its case against Pickton was so overwhelming that he couldn't possibly avoid conviction at another trial, so justice would not be served by ordering a new one.
Central to the appeal is whether the initial instruction by the trial judge was adequate, and whether his subsequent answer to a question from the jury during deliberations further muddied the waters.
Pickton still faces charges in the deaths of 20 other women but the prosecution has said that if his conviction is upheld, they will not proceed to trial on the remaining charges. If the convictions are overturned, they want to retry Pickton on all 26 murder counts.
For his part, Crey said a second trial and subsequent conviction wouldn't change Pickton's life sentence.
"It can't make him any guiltier than he is."
Roger Borhaven's feelings about the high court decision are mixed. His daughter, Andrea Borhaven, is on the list of 20 women Pickton stands accused of killing but whose cases have not gone to court.
He would like to see Pickton go to trial for his daughter's death, but he's also worried about a second trial.
"I'd sooner see him convicted. If he goes for another trial then he might get off," he said. "It's a gamble all right."
Crey prefers to see the decision left alone.
"I hope his convictions are upheld and he faces his future as it is and that's basically a small cell in some federal prison for the balance of his life."
Crey said it's time to get on with a promised inquiry into the police investigation of dozens of cases of women missing from the poverty-stricken Vancouver neighbourhood.
"I think it will cast light into some dark corners about the investigation." Crey said. "For one thing how is it possible that so many women would vanish from the Downtown Eastside right out from under the noses of police."
Pickton is serving a mandatory sentence of life in prison for killing Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury, Georgina Papin, Brenda Wolfe and Marnie Frey. He has no possibility of parole for 25 years.
His 2002 arrest led to a massive search of his property in Port Coquitlam, B.C., where investigators found body parts, blood samples, fragments of bone and the belongings of victims.
The Crown's evidence was among the most grisly ever aired in a Canadian courtroom.
