GUILTY or NOT? / Case library / Categories
Every case in the library, grouped by what it is really about. A case can appear in more than one category — a firearm-possession charge is often a Charter case underneath.
GUILTY or NOT? is the original daily true crime puzzle, hosted by Every Defence LLP: one real Canadian criminal case a day. Read the facts as the court had them, weigh the Crown against the defence, decide GUILTY or NOT, then see what the court actually decided.
Possession, careless storage, pointing, discharging and trafficking — the Criminal Code firearm and weapons offences, and what the Crown has to prove about the gun itself.
32 cases →Murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death — the cases where the question is not only what happened, but what the accused meant, or should have foreseen.
6 cases →Assault, aggravated assault, robbery, kidnapping and threats — violence short of homicide.
8 cases →Theft, fraud, break and enter, robbery and possession of stolen property — including what counts as "anything" that can be stolen.
7 cases →Drug charges, and the cases where drugs or alcohol sit at the heart of what happened — from importing heroin to a psychotic break on magic mushrooms.
11 cases →Impaired driving, care or control, and dangerous operation causing death — the offences that start with a motor vehicle.
3 cases →Stops, detentions, searches and warrants under the Charter — and whether evidence obtained in breach is excluded under s. 24(2).
15 cases →Self-defence, duress, necessity, consent, automatism and not criminally responsible — the cases where the act is admitted and the fight is over whether the law excuses it.
14 cases →Circumstantial cases, eyewitness identification, surveillance video, fingerprints and intercepts — when the question is not what the law says but whether the Crown has proved who, and what.
13 cases →Agreeing to a crime, counselling one, attempting one, or answering as a party for one somebody else committed.
4 cases →Causing a disturbance, breach of trust by a public officer, obstruction and the other offences against public order and the administration of justice.
4 cases →A new real Canadian case every day. Read the brief, weigh the Crown against the defence, commit to a verdict, then see what the court decided — and why.