CORNWALL – The lawyer for a man convicted of possession of child pornography intends to file a constitutional challenge during sentencing.
Randy Crowder pled guilty to the charge in January 2020. Court heard how police investigators found one picture and one video that “depicted females between 7 and 15 years old,” Crown attorney Alexandre Simard said at the time.
During a court appearance Thursday (July 29), Crowder’s lawyer, Bill Wade, told Justice of the Peace Ginette Forgues he intended to file a notice of constitutional question by the end of the week.
Wade did not say on what grounds he intended to make the challenge, though he has not agreed with mandatory minimum sentences introduced by the federal government in 2005.
During sentencing in a Cornwall case in 2018 involving another person charged with child pornography possession, Wade argued that the statutory minimum seemed to “be completely contrary to individual sentencing (principles) that has become a hallmark of our judicial system.”
Depending on how the Crown prosecuted the case, the mandatory minimum can be six months in jail on a summary conviction and one year on an indictable conviction.
Crowder, 59, has no prior criminal record.
The constitutional challenge and sentencing submissions will be heard Sept. 8, 2021 before Judge Franco Giamberardino.