Angela Nicholson is appealing her conviction.
The Saskatchewan woman found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced alongside her lover Curtis Vey to three years in prison has filed the application with Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal.
A jury found Nicholson and Vey guilty in June of conspiring to kill their spouses, and the pair was sentenced earlier this month.
Nicholson’s defence lawyer, Ron Piche, listed several reasons in the appeal documents why the conviction should be reversed.
The document states the judge overseeing the case didn’t explain to the jury they shouldn’t make an adverse inference because Nicholson didn’t testify at the trial; they shouldn’t take her silence as a suggestion she was guilty, the appeal argues.
The judge also didn’t properly emphasize to the jury they must find the accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that they can find the accused guilty of a lesser crime, the appeal alleges. The jury must be sure Nicholson planned to put the plan into action and the jury had the option to find the accused guilty of a crime such as conspiracy to commit arson.
Piche also argues in the appeal the judge failed to properly deal with an incident in which the defence team claims a member of the public possibly influenced one of the jurors.
He filed a motion Wednesday asking for Nicholson to be released until her appeal is handled. The motion pointed out she was released for three years before her conviction and never breached conditions.
The prosecution argued at the hearing that bail should not be granted because of the seriousness of the charges and that the grounds of Nicholson’s appeal weren’t compelling.
The judge reserved his decision on bail.
A date for the appeal has not yet been set.
