Dad Says Girl’s Death Was Mercy Killing Father Asks Judge For Waiver Of Mandatory Minimum Term

A father is seeking a rarely granted waiver of punishment in a hearing Monday into what he insists was the mercy killing of his disabled daughter.

A Saskatchewan jury convicted Robert Latimer on Nov. 5 of second-degree murder, which carries a minimum sentence of life without a chance of parole for 10 years. Jurors, clearly torn by the case, strayed from sentencing mandates to recommend that Latimer be paroled in one year.

Latimer’s lawyer, citing jurors’ statements that even the minimum sentence was unjust in the killing, has asked Judge Ted Noble to strike down the sentence as constitutionally prohibited cruel and unusual punishment.

Latimer admits carrying his sleeping 12-year-old daughter, Tracy, out to the cab of his pickup truck in October 1993, then piping in carbon monoxide until she died.

He said he acted to end the suffering of his daughter, who had cerebral palsy and had repeated operations on her back, hips and legs. Unable to walk, talk or feed herself, the girl weighed less than 40 pounds at death.