Background
A 95 year-old widow was robbed and left hog tied in her room. Over a period of 48 hours she suffocated to death. During an undercover investigation, a suspect, Daniel Nette, had admitted to an undercover officer that he had robbed and killed the widow. Nette was arrested and charged with first-degree murder under section 231(5) of the Criminal Code.
The leading case on causation was R. v. Smithers (1978) which required proof of "a contributing cause of death, outside the de minimis range".
In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Nette argued that the trial judge misdirected the jury on the standard of causation applicable to second degree murder. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the standard for causation should be the de minimis test from Smithers or the "significant contributing cause" test from R. v. Harbottle.
Read more about this topic: R. V. Nette
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