R. v. Doxtator, 2022 ONCA 155, 2022 SCC 40 (40063)
Kasirer J.: “A majority of the Court would allow the appeal. The trial judge’s instructions for Mr. Doxtator properly left with the jury the reasonably available verdicts. As MacPherson J.A., dissenting, correctly observed in the Court of Appeal, the trial judge explicitly instructed the jury to consider Mr. Doxtator’s case separately from that of the co-accused. Nothing in the record on appeal permits this Court to depart from the assumption that juries generally follow explicit instructions: see R. v. Corbett, [1988] 1 S.C.R. 670, at pp. 692-93. This is sufficient for the appeal to be allowed, to set aside the order for a new trial for the respondent Richard Doxtator and to restore his conviction for first degree murder. Justices Karakatsanis and Rowe, dissenting, would dismiss the appeal substantially for the reasons of Roberts J.A. in the Court of Appeal.”
SCC Today: Criminal Law; Homicide
