Second degree murder is not the problem it depends on what the sentence is. Picton only got ht maximum for second degree and it is effectively the same sentence.
quote:
A jury convicted Pickton Sunday of six counts of second-degree murder in the slayings of Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Andrea Joesbury, Georgina Papin, Mona Wilson and Brenda Wolfe.Twenty-five years without being eligible for parole is the maximum sentence for second-degree murder. It is equivalent to what Pickton would have faced if he had been convicted of first-degree murder.