Top Canadian judge, 88, is sentenced to just ONE DAY in prison after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his wife who was shot in the head in their Quebec mansion in 2009

A top Canadian judge was sentenced to one day in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of his wife in 2009. 

Jacques Delisle, 88, had previously served almost nine years in prison for first degree murder after he was convicted of shooting dead his 71-year-old wife Marie Nicole Rainville inside their Quebec mansion. 

Delisle always maintained that he provided his suicidal wife with a loaded handgun, but insisted that he did not pull the trigger and wasn't in their home at the time.  

After he was granted a new trial in 2021 amid doubts over the forensic evidence that convicted him, he was freed for three years until he faced a second murder trial - ultimately leading to his manslaughter plea deal on Thursday. 

Prosecutors said his advanced age was behind the plea deal, as he was allowed to be sentenced to time-served plus one additional day despite their belief he would have been convicted of murder again if he stood trial.

'This case, somewhere, sometime, has to come to an end,' Crown prosecutor François Godin said. 'It's been 15 years, he spent almost nine years in prison, 88 years old. We do not believe he would have been able to stand trial.' 

Jacques Delisle, 88, served almost nine years in prison for the murder of his wife, which he maintained was a suicide. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Thursday and was sentenced to one more day in prison 

The judge's wife Marie Nicole Rainville (pictured) was found shot in the head in their Quebec mansion in 2009. She had suffered a debilitating stroke months before, and Delisle claimed she told him of her intention to commit suicide 

The 88-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Thursday (pictured at his hearing), but maintained his innocence as his attorney said he took the plea to bring his legal ordeal to an end 

Delisle had always maintained innocence over the death of his wife, who died in their home in 2009 after suffering a gunshot wound to the head. 

The case sparked a media frenzy in Canada as he became the first member of the Canadian judiciary to ever be charged with murder, according to a CBC article from the time. 

His wife Marie had been partially paralyzed by a stroke months before her death, and police initially believed that she died by suicide.  

An anonymous neighbor told the outlet at the time that she could 'hardly talk, she couldn't walk, she couldn't do nothing... so, this was a very tough situation.' 

Delisle was charged with her murder the next year, and when his trial began in 2012, the case hinged on forensic analysis of the gunshot to establish if she had taken her own life, or if Delisle pulled the trigger. 

The judge admitted to giving his wife the gun, but said he pleaded with her not to kill herself with it after she told him of her intention to commit suicide due to being depressed and disabled by the stroke. 

'I did my best to convince her not to go further in her thinking, but she was convinced,' he said in a prison interview from The Fifth Estate in 2015. 

He told the outlet that he left a loaded handgun with his wife for an hour while he ran errands, but didn't believe she would commit suicide until he returned home to find her dead on his couch.  

At trial, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Delisle said his wife was never the same after her stroke. When she told him of her intention to commit suicide, he gave her a loaded handgun, but said he 'did my best to convince her not to go further in her thinking, but she was convinced' 

Delisle said he gave his wife a loaded handgun, but tried to talk her out of using it on herself before he returned from running errands one day to find her dead on his couch (seen in an evidence image) 

After serving eight years and 310 days in prison, he was awarded a retrial in 2021 as a federal judge ruled that a 'miscarriage of justice likely occurred.' 

This ruling came in part because one of the prosecution's experts who carried out the autopsy failed to properly examine the trajectory of the bullet, reports CBC. 

After being awarded a retrial, he was released as he waited to stand trial again, before the proceedings were delayed several times. 

His three-year wait for a retrial ended Thursday as he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which his attorney said came as he just wanted his legal ordeal to end.

'Delisle wants everything to end today,' his lawyer Jacques Larochelle said after he accepted the plea. 

Larochelle said that although Delisle accepted the plea, he disagreed with the prosecution's assertion that he killed his wife and maintained his innocence. 

The plea deal took the near-decade Delisle man had already served into consideration, and he took the deal as it would only add an extra day behind bars. 

The 88-year-old appeared thin and frail as he took the plea in a Quebec court on Thursday, and reportedly said 'oh no' as he was handcuffed by cops before being led away. 

Larochelle added that although the sentence was for only a day, his client would actually only serve a few hours behind bars before being released that same day. 

The 88-year-old appeared thin and frail as he took the plea in a Quebec court on Thursday (pictured), and reportedly said 'oh no' as he was handcuffed by cops before being led away

The attorney said that he had petitioned the court for a charge of assisted suicide, which he said was rejected by prosecutors 'for reasons that are beyond my comprehension.'  

Godin, who maintained that Delisle killed his wife, said that he rejected the plea of assisted suicide because 'that's not what happened.'

He insisted that if he stood trial, Delisle 'would have been found guilty of first-degree murder' for a second time, but his advanced age led prosecutors to approach his case with more leniency. 

'This case, somewhere, sometime, has to come to an end. It's been 15 years, he spent almost nine years in prison, 88 years old,' he said.

'We do not believe he would have been able to stand trial.'