Crown prosecutors will not appeal former RCMP Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson's sentence, the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch announced Friday afternoon.
Communications counsel Neil MacKenzie said the significant public interest in the case lead the branch to release its decision, something that is not normally done.
Robinson is the former Mountie convicted earlier this year of obstruction of justice in the 2008 Tsawwassen crash that killed 21-year-old Orion Hutchinson.
Last month, Robinson received a 12-month conditional sentence.
MacKenzie said there are three main reasons behind the decision to not appeal the sentence - although the Crown asked for a three to nine month jail sentence, it acknowledged that a conditional sentence of 12 to 18 months was legally available; there is no error of law that would justify an appeal; and, a reviewing court would likely defer to the judge's exercise of discretion.
"Trial judges have broad discretion at sentencing," he said. "If a sentence is appealed, the appeal court will generally defer to the judge's finding's of fact, as well as the judge's assessment of what principles of sentence should be given priority in the case.
MacKenzie said that the appeal court cannot substitute its opinion for that of the trial judge simple because it might have taken a different approach. In the case of an appeal, the Crown would have to show that the sentence imposed was "demonstrably unfit".
"A 'demonstrably unfit' sentence is a sentence that because of legal error, or its clear inadequacy, significantly departs from the range of sentences that might otherwise be available in similar cases," he said.
"The fact that a sentence is different from what the Crown asked for does not mean that it was 'demonstrably unfit'."
