Former Quebec judge accused of killing his wife to plead guilty on Thursday
Jacques Delisle, a former judge who was accused of killing his wife, will plead guilty on Thursday, according to Quebec's criminal prosecutions office, but it is not yet clear what charge he will plead guilty to.
A representative for the office said Delisle's lawyer confirmed the imminent guilty plea at a court hearing Wednesday.
A court appearance has been set for Delisle to enter his plea on Thursday in Quebec City.
The plea is likely to end a nearly 15-year saga that initially saw Delisle, a former judge on the Quebec Court of Appeal, convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, 71-year-old Marie Nicole Rainville, who died in 2009.
Rainville, who had been partially paralyzed due to a stroke, died of a gunshot to the head. Delisle's first trial hinged on detailed forensic analysis over whether she had taken her own life or if he had killed her.
Delisle, now 88, said he gave her the gun, but he denied shooting her.
He was convicted in that first trial, spent nearly a decade in prison but was then awarded another trial when the federal justice minister, David Lametti, said that a "miscarriage of justice likely occurred" in part because one of the Crown's experts made serious mistakes in the original pathology report that led to Delisle's conviction.
Delisle's second trial was also plagued by delays. He was first awarded a stay of proceedings in 2022 by a Quebec Superior Court judge, but then ordered to go ahead with the trial when the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned that decision. He has been walking free awaiting a decision on the second trial.
The Supreme Court of Canada was slated to announce whether it would hear the case on Thursday, but on Wednesday, the supreme court withdrew the case following a discontinuance notice by Delisle's team.
