Reducing a Sentence because of the Progress the Offender has Made Awaiting Appeal
It is well-established that if there is fresh evidence to show a change of circumstances after a fit sentence was imposed, an appellate court may exercise its discretion and act on it pursuant to the obligation to assess the fitness of the sentence at the time when the appeal is heard. R. v. Johnson , [2006] O.J. No. 2182 (C.A.) at para. 11 . On occasion, appellate courts have reduced a sentence which was fit when imposed because of the significant progress the offender made while awaiting the hearing of the appeal. The exercise of this discretion is unusual, as routinely deciding sentence appeals on the basis of after-the-fact developments could jeopardize the integrity of the criminal process by undermining its finality. See R. v. Sipos , 2014 SCC 47 (CanLII), [2014] 2 S.C.R. 423 , at para. 30 . The offender is required to establish that he/she has taken something akin to “very unusua...