Inconsistent Verdicts: Things that Make You Go Hmm
The legal test applicable when a reviewing court is faced with an allegation of inconsistent jury verdicts is “whether the verdicts are supportable on any theory of the evidence consistent with the legal instructions given by the trial judge”: R. v. Pittiman , 2006 SCC 9, [2006] 1 S.C.R. 381, at para. 7. Where the accused is tried on a multi-count indictment, “the verdicts will be supportable if the trial judge’s instructions were proper legal instructions that could have led the jury to accept a theory of the evidence producing these verdicts”: R. v. L(S) , 2013 ONCA 176, 300 C.C.C. (3d) 100, at para. 5; R. v. Tyler , 2015 ONCA 599, [2015] O.J. No. 4653, at para. 8. OK, hold on. Here’s where things get a little tricky. Verdicts that are inconsistent are unreasonable: they cannot be supported on a realistic view of the evidence. As a species of unreasonable v...