Ex-judge granted bail in murder case

Jacques Delisle, a retired judge charged with first-degree murderin connection with the death of his wife, has been released on bail.

The former Quebec Court of Appeal judge appeared at the Quebec City courthouse for a bail hearing on Wednesday.

Delisle, 75, rocked back and forth as witnesses laid out details about why he was charged and why he should be allowed to be released.

A publication ban is in effect on what was said in the courthouse.

However, in court documents filed earlier, Delisle argued that he should be released on bail because the evidence against him is speculative at best.

Death initially thought to be suicide

Delisle's wife, Marie-Nicole Rainville, died at the couple's Quebec City condominium in November 2009.

She was found with a gunshot wound to the temple after having expressed a desire to die because her life was "unbearable," the documents said.

Rainville, 71, had suffered a stroke that left the right side of her body paralyzed.

Police initially thought the woman's death was a suicide, but the Crown seems convinced that the woman could not have held the weapon on her own.

Delisle also faces a charge of illegal possession of a firearm.

Delisle's lawyer, Jacques Larochelle, said it only made sense to release his client given that people accused of what he called "worse" crimes are also out on bail. He said six former members of the Hells Angels biker gang were recently released on bail despite facing numerous murder charges.

"Certainly, if they were set free because they had left the organization a number of years ago, Mister Justice Delisle was entitled to his freedom," said Larochelle.

This is the first time a member of the Canadian judiciary has faced a first-degree murder charge.

Judge says he can be impartial

Beforehearing the arguments in court on Wednesday, Quebec Superior Court Justice Claude C.Gagnon stressed there would be no conflict of interest in hearing the case involving a former peer.

The question of how to provide a fair an impartial trial to a long-time member of the legal community has been prominent in media coverage of Delisle's case.

The Crown has provided a prosecutor with limited ties to Quebec City, where Delisle spent much of his judicial career.

Delisle, admitted to the Quebec bar in 1958, was named a Superior Court justice in 1983 and was promoted to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1992.

Before hearing the bail request, Gagnon explained that he had the ability to preside over the hearing and said he didn't know the accused personally.

"I have no memory of any social event I might have attended with him and I don't know any member of his family," Gagnon told the court. "I've never had a conversation with him. At best I might have said hello to him, politely, from a distance when we crossed paths."

Delisle is expected to return to court Aug. 30.