Ali Al-Shammari is 20 years into a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Thualfikar Alantiyya, 41, killed on November 19, 2004.
Al-Shammari,38, is asking a jury – now down to 12 people – to give him a chance to ask for parole five years sooner than sentenced.
It’s called a ‘faint hope hearing’ in the Criminal Code of Canada.
Al-Shammari told the jury his family first emigrated from Kuwait to the United States before the family “walked” through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel to enter Canada when he was a young boy.
He described his upbringing as a “lonely existence” because of the language barrier.
By high school however, Al-Shammari says he was fully fluent in English and had lots of friends in high school.
In the fall of 2004, Al-Shammari says his friends, including one who was 17 at the time, asked for help with a fight.
“(They said) ‘This …