Travis Vader's defence lawyers filed a notice of appeal Friday, two days after their client was handed a life sentence for killing two St. Albert seniors.

Defence lawyer Brian Beresh outlined a dozen grounds for appeal, ranging from what he called the "undue delay perpetrated by the police and the Crown" to the fact that a life sentence was "demonstrably unfit" for the crime of manslaughter.

The notice was filed Friday with the Court of Appeal of Alberta.

Beresh, in his notice of appeal, argued that Court of Queen's Bench Justice Denny Thomas convicted Vader purely on circumstantial evidence, which was in part based on testimony from "unsavoury Crown witnesses."

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He also argued that Thomas made a error in law when he originally convicted Vader of second-degree murder by citing Section 230 of the Criminal Code, which was deemed unconstitutional more than 20 years ago.

The notice of appeal also argues that Vader's rights under the charter were violated during a strip search conducted after he was arrested.

Travis Vader was given a life sentence Wednesday for the killings of Lyle and Marie McCann. (CBC)

Beresh filed notice that he intends to appeal both the conviction and the sentence.

Vader, 44, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for killing Lyle and Marie McCann, who were last seen alive in 2010.

Given the chance to speak before sentence was passed, Vader said: "This court has convicted an innocent man. And I will continue to fight until I can clear my name."

In handing down his sentence, Thomas said he believed Vader had selected his victims almost at random, took them by surprise, robbed and killed them.

Outside the courthouse on Wednesday, Beresh began laying the groundwork for the notice of appeal filed two days later.

"What disturbs me about this case — in fact it haunts me — is that at the end of the day there are still so many questions that are unanswered," he told reporters not long after sentence was passed.

Beresh called the case against his client circumstantial and outlined the points of law that became the focus his notice of appeal.

"In essence, the court of appeal will be asked how, in a case like this where there are so many holes in the case, so many gaps to be filled by the evidence, do we come to rely upon, 'This must have happened. This must have happened.' And then we start to add all of those speculative reasons together to try to come to some conclusion.

"Our position on the appeal will be, the law doesn't allow this. The courts have never tolerated it."

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The complicated case unfolded over more than six years, dating back to July 3, 2010, the last day the McCanns were seen alive. Their bodies have not been found.