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Kim Baskin 0347287 K. Cleghorn Criminal Law 2311FA November 11, 2008 Criminal Law Assignment: Clifford Olson Clifford Olsen plead guilty to the charges of first and second degree murder in his trial on August 12th 1982. He has been in jail serving his life sentence for the past 25 years. In July 2006, Olsen now 66, had the opportunity to present his case to the supreme court of justice, including a jury, of why he should be released on probation. In 1981, Olsen was suspected to be one of Canada’s largest murderers of his time.
In British Columbia he had tortured, raped and killed anywhere from 80-200 bodies but the RCMP had only found and identified eleven. During his time in prison, Olsen refused most treatment and counseling that had been offered to him, and instead wrote two books in which he made $50,000 on each. Families of the victims have also received letters from Clifford Olsen describing the ways that he tortured, raped and killed their loved ones. The actus reus of the offence is Olsen’s intent to kill and torture many innocent people purposely with proof of his dishonest act.
The Mens reas in Olsons case is the intent of torturing and murdering children aged 9-18 knowing fully the impact and emotional instability that the families and friends would have to deal with. Clifford Olson was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Now that he is spent his years in prison Olson was able to apply for parole. He has not shown any significant remorse for any of his murders and did not prove to the jury that he deserved to be released on probation, therefore, his case was unsuccessful. Clifford Olsen, was the last murderer to be able to apply for the “Faint Hope Claus”.
This “Faint Hope Clause” was made when the death penalty was removed from our system and a mandatory life sentence was replaced. After serving 15 years of one’s life sentence, convicts who were not considered a threat to society were eligible to apply for parole due to the “Faint Hope Claus” after 15 years of their expected term. After Olsen was turned down, the eligibility was removed from serial killers to be able to use this “Faint Hope Claus” for an attempt to exit the system. Clifford Olsen is claimed to be the “B. C Beast” for several reasons that we do not even need to ask why, we just know.
He is one of the many serial killers that have been caught and incarcerated in Canada. These types of criminals in my opinion should never be allowed on the streets of our country again, but unfortunately that is not reality. I am glad that Clifford Olson was not granted parole after serving his life sentence. It would be a different story if he had participated in rehabilitation programs during his sentence. This shows that he does not take responsibility for what he has done, nor has he known any kind of remorse. These things all add up to convince not only parole but the public weather or not he should be released.