The Supreme Court of Canada will not consider an appeal by Michel Bérubé, a Montreal man who was convicted of first-degree murder despite claiming his wife hanged herself because she didn't like her body.
As is customary, the court gave no reason for its decision, which was released Thursday.
Bérubé appealed on the grounds the Quebec Court of Appeal erred in concluding multiple interventions by the trial judge did not affect fairness of trial.
He was charged after the Nov. 20, 2002, death of Tanya Buschman. Bérubé had taken her body to the emergency room of Montreal's Lakeshore General Hospital.
Buschman had a thin wire wrapped tightly around her neck. She was declared dead, apparently by asphyxiation.
Bérubé told doctors, and then police, that he had found his wife hanging in their home.
Throughout the 2005 trial, the defence maintained Buschman hanged herself because she had poor body image.
The prosecution argued Bérubé attacked his wife and then strangled her after she told him she was leaving him for another man.
Bérubé was charged six months after Buschman's death.
A first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence, with no chance for parole for 25 years.
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