The lawyer who represented Tammy Lynn Goforth during her trial for starving a four-year-girl to death does not think she has much of a chance getting her conviction overturned, but he holds out a little more hope on her appeal of the sentence.
Jeff Deagle was her Legal Aid lawyer for the trial, but his involvement in the case is over for now, unless Legal Aid asks him to take on the appeal.
Tammy Lynn Goforth wrote a two-sentence appeal, which was filed last Friday.
Basically, it says her sentence was too harsh and she wants another chance to explain herself. Earlier this month she was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 17 years after being convicted of second-degree murder.
Her husband, Kevin Goforth, got 15 years for manslaughter. Both sentences are on the very high end of the scale.
Deagle says it is not easy to get a jury conviction overturned.
“We basically have to convince a Court of Appeal’s panel that the judge made some error in the charge to the jury,” he said. “That is really the only place a conviction appeal can be founded because juries don’t give reasons.”
That will be a challenge. Justice Ellen Gunn spent more than four hours providing hundreds of pages of detailed instructions to the jury. Sentencing was up to her.
Gunn opted to impose what she called “grave punishments for grave crimes.”
Speaking as Goforth’s lawyer, Deagle says not enough weight was given to the character of the accused.
“My view of it is that less may have been given to that first criteria of character of the individual and more to the punitive portion of the sentence, “he said.
Tammy and Kevin Goforth were caregivers for two little girls in 2012 when the children were rushed to a Regina hospital severely malnourished and covered in bruises. The four-year-old died, while her two year old sister recovered.
There is no word on whether Kevin Goforth will appeal his 15 year manslaughter sentence.
The pair was sentenced March 4. Notices of appeal have to be filed within 30 days.