Killer pleads for second chance
Jason...@virgin.net
'I'm not a monster'
Killer pleads for second chance
By KEVIN MARTIN, CALGARY SUN
Wife-killer Maurice Sychuk wants the world to know he is not a
monster.
But the disbarred lawyer -- who has applied for reinstatement after
spending 10 years in prison -- said he has not been able to get his
message out.
"As a result of what I've done, I'm no longer considered to be a human
being," Sychuk told a press conference in Calgary yesterday.
The former university professor and one-time successful Edmonton lawyer
said he won't attend his reinstatement hearing before the Law Society
Sept. 30.
He said attending would be a waste of time, since he fully expects
society benchers to "rubber stamp" a Committee of Inquiry recommendation
to reject his application.
Sychuk, now 59, was banished from the profession after he was convicted
of second-degree murder for the brutal New Year's Eve 1987 slaying of
his wife.
He stabbed Claudia Sychuk 22 times during a drunken rage at their
Edmonton home.
Sychuk said the public still sees him as that anger-filled,
depression-laced alcoholic.
"There was a general feeling and thought that I was no longer a human
being, that I was evil personified, that I was an animal," said Sychuk,
his son Bruce by his side.
"The jailhouse vernacular would say that I was a piece of excrement."
But Sychuk, in his plea to the public through the media, said he should
be given another chance.
He said he has a lot to offer society because he has learned from his
experiences, but the Law Society is letting emotion cloud their
decision.
Sychuk said he's been thwarted in his attempts to help others deal with
alcoholism and anger management because of the notoriety of his case.
He said his vast strides towards rehabilitation make him an ideal
candidate to participate in public education programs for domestic
abuse.
"If I am a piece of human feces, what I have done since December 31,
1987 doesn't matter -- quite simply people don't care."