Douglas Garland appeal heard in Calgary court

CALGARY – The lawyer for a man found guilty of murdering a Calgary couple and their grandson is arguing his client’s conviction should be overturned.

Alias Sanders told the Alberta Court of Appeal that the trial judge shouldn’t have allowed evidence found at Douglas Garland’s farm after Alvin and Kathy Liknes and five-year-old Nathan O’Brien disappeared.

Sanders said police didn’t have enough to obtain a search warrant, so went to the property on the chance that the three missing people were being held there.

She said Garland’s constitutional rights were violated when he was initially arrested and held while the property was searched.

“There was a whole warrantless search done of the Garland farm,” University of Calgary law professor Lisa Silver said. “So there was a whole argument about search and seizure … because a warrantless search is presumptively illegal.”

Sanders said other than a long-simmering feud between Garland and Alvin Liknes, there had been no violence or other reason to make Garland a suspect.

Garland’s appeal also claims the trial judge made errors by showing too much emotion, which may have influenced the jury.

Silver said there are several cases that could serve as a precedent that show the way judges behave during emotionally disturbing trials has changed.

“So you have that old concept of judges being not just impartial, but being an umpire,” Silver said. “And that has changed over the years.”

In a separate appeal, Garland argued his sentence of 75 years without parole is “excessive and harsh.”

Garland, who is 59, was convicted in 2017 on three counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 75 years.

With files from the Canadian Press

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