Thursday, December 10, 1998

No Appeal of Sentence in Husband Killing

An appeal request has been turned down in the case of a woman who was not sentenced to jail after being found guilty of shooting her husband while he was sleeping.

The Attorney-General's office in Toronto turned down the appeal request made by Crown attorneys this week.

Lilian Getkate, 38, was convicted in October of manslaughter in the death of Maury Getkate and sentenced last month to serve two years less a day at her home in Maple Ridge, B.C.

"I am disappointed. I thought there were grounds for an appeal," said Julianne Parfett, the Crown attorney who prosecuted Lilian Getkate.

Lilian Getkate pleaded not guilty to the December 1995 killing, hoping for an acquittal of the basis of her defence that she was a battered woman who killed in self-defence.

While the jury found that Getkate was abused by her husband, it was not to the degree where the death could be justified at law, the judge said in his decision. The judge said she was not a danger to society and did not require a stay behind bars.

Ottawa Citizen

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