Appeal aims to reduce murder to manslaughter
2006 DEATH OF MANJIT PANGHALI
A lawyer for a Surrey man who strangled his pregnant wife suggested Friday that the B.C. Court of Appeal could substitute his client’s murder conviction for a manslaughter conviction.
Michael Tammen made the submissions during the conviction appeal of Mukhtiar Panghali, a former teacher who was found guilty in the second-degree murder of Manjit Panghali, 31.
The defence lawyer said the court could acquit Mukhtiar Panghali and order a new trial but also said the judges were open to finding a verdict of manslaughter.
The case was based entirely on circumstantial evidence against Panghali, his lawyer said.
The prosecution’s case came down to whether or not Panghali had sufficient intent to commit murder, and there was insufficient evidence to do so, Tammen told a three-member panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal.
Tammen argued that the trial judge, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes, wrongly admitted autopsy evidence that Panghali’s wife had suffered a hematoma.
The admission of evidence came just before the prosecution concluded its case and prevented Panghali from possibly calling evidence and testifying in his own defence, he said.
Tammen then posed a “hypothetical” scenario in which Panghali might have got into an argument with his wife that escalated into a physical fight — events that would include a “very clear” path to a manslaughter conviction.
Justice David Frankel questioned why that one piece of evidence was so critical to the defence.
Tammen responded that the evidence of a hematoma could have allowed the prosecution to crossexamine Panghali about a possible sexual assault or other physical assault that occurred in addition to the events that caused the woman’s death.
It would pit Panghali’s word against that of an expert and leave Panghali open to being convicted of an even more serious charge, that of first-degree murder, he said.
Prosecutor Dennis Murray told the panel that Holmes had done nothing wrong in admitting the evidence.
Manjit Panghali disappeared after a prenatal yoga class in south Surrey on Oct. 18, 2006. She was four months pregnant with her second child. Her charred remains were found five days later.
Mukhtiar Panghali received the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility for 11 years.