Decision reserved in Dooley murder appeal

The Ontario Court Appeal has reserved its decision on whether to grant a new trial to Tony and Marcia Dooley, the Toronto couple convicted of second-degree murder in the death of seven-year-old Randal Dooley.

The boy died in September 1998 of a brain injury, the culmination of what the judge presiding over the Dooleys' 2002 trial called one of the worst cases of child abuse in Canadian history.

The boy's father, Tony Dooley, and stepmother, Marcia Dooley, were sentenced in May 2002 to life in prison.

Lawyers for the couple have asked the Appeal Court to overturn the murder charges, saying fresh evidence casts doubt on the cause of death. They also argued the original trial judge erred by repeatedly using inflammatory language in his comments to jurors instead of encouraging them to be unemotional.

Appeal Court Justice David Doherty said Wednesday that the horrific abuse suffered by Randal was obviously enough to justify a manslaughter conviction. But appeal judges would now have to determine if the evidence against the two older Dooleys warranted a murder conviction.

Defence questions judge's instruction

An autopsy on Randal, who weighed just 40 pounds at the time of his death, discovered 13 broken ribs, a lacerated liver and a tooth in his stomach. A pathologist testified the boy had been stomped on and kicked.

Clayton Ruby, defence lawyer for Tony Dooley, argued that the jurors in the 2002 trial were meant to focus only on the brain injury that led directly to Randal's death, not the numerous other forms of abuse he suffered.

The Crown argued the jurors understood that distinction.

But Ruby disagreed, telling reporters outside the courtroom that Justice Doherty "was concerned as to whether the jury was ever told: 'Look, you can't convict them on these horrible things before the beatings that didn't cause death. You've got to focus as a jury on what did cause death.'"

Marica Dooley's lawyer also argued that her life sentence with no chance of parole for 18 years was too tough.

But Crown lawyers argued that Marcia committed 90 per cent of the abuse and she was the one who delivered the final blow that killed Randal.