Supreme court upholds convictions in horrific child-murder case involving custodial dad, step (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

We've posted on custodial dad TONY DOOLEY and the charming step before. Another case where a mother and child from a poor country--in this case Jamaica--were screwed by a richer, North American daddy.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/supreme-court-upholds-convictions-in-horrific-child-murder-case/article1734619/

Supreme Court upholds convictions in horrific child-murder case
Ottawa— The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, Sep. 30, 2010 11:25AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Sep. 30, 2010 11:35AM EDT

Second-degree murder convictions have been upheld in what's been called one of Canada's worst child-abuse cases.

The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear an appeal in the case of seven-year-old Randal Dooley.

The court, as usual, did not give reasons.

A jury convicted the boy's father and stepmother, Tony and Marcia Dooley, in 2002 of murdering the boy.

Randal had wasted to just 41 pounds and had 13 fractured ribs, a lacerated liver, four brain injuries, and head-to-toe bruises when he died in 1998.

Last December, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the couple's argument that they should be granted a new trial because the judge made legal errors which resulted in jury verdicts based on emotion, not evidence.

Randal was born in Jamaica and came to Canada to live with his father and stepmother in November 1997, 11 months before his death.

The key objection raised during the appeal was the trial judge's failure to specifically instruct the jury not to convict the couple based solely on the evidence of prior abuse.

The Ontario Appeal Court also dismissed Marcia Dooley's sentence appeal.

At the 2002 trial the judge found Marcia Dooley “more blameworthy” and handed her a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 18 years.

It was found that she had struck the fatal blow to Randal and had inflicted the vast majority of the prior abuse.

Her husband received a life term with no parole for at least 13 years.