Judge reserves bail decision for Sask. sisters who claim wrongful conviction after nearly 30 years in prison
CBC
Odelia Quewezance's family sang her Happy Birthday Wednesday on the steps of the Court of King's Bench in Yorkton, Sask.
She and her sister argued this week for their release on bail after decades in prison for a murder they say they didn't commit, but will have to wait a little while longer before they know if they have succeeded after the judge reserved his decision.
Odelia, 51, and Nerissa Quewezance, 48, Saulteaux woman from the Keeseekoose First Nation, were convicted in the 1993 murder of Anthony Joseph Dolff, a 70-year-old farmer near Kamsack, Sask., and have been in the prison system for nearly 30 years. The sisters have maintained their innocence.
The federal Justice Department started a review last year, saying there may be a reasonable basis to conclude their convictions were a miscarriage of justice.
A criminal conviction review can take years. When it is over, a report and legal advice will be prepared for the federal justice minister. The minister can then order a new trial or appeal, or dismiss the application if he is not convinced there has been a miscarriage of justice.
In the meantime, the sisters' defence team is arguing for their conditional release, as are advocates like Ontario Senator Kim Pate and Congress of Aboriginal Peoples vice-chief Kim Beaudin.
James Lockyer, the sisters' lawyer, used previous overturned convictions to argue the women were wrongfully imprisoned, and argued their confessions were forced and unreliable.
"We had two young Indigenous girls," he said in court. "Their vulnerability in that police station … is obvious."
Lockyer said the sisters' statements to police weren't recorded, unlike that of a youth who was also convicted in Dolff's murder and served four years.
Lockyer also said there was a battle of credibility between two Indigenous girls and the Kamsack Police Department, and "Odelia and Nerissa were bound to lose that contest."
Crown prosecutor Kelly Kaip opposed the release pending the ministerial review and argued the request should be dismissed.
Kaip focused Tuesday on parole documents detailing the sisters' records over the past three decades, including Nerissa's record of obstructing a police officer, assaulting a police officer and being unlawfully at large several times in the past three decades.
Kaip began her arguments Wednesday with a graphic recounting of Dolff's death, moving his family — present in the courtroom — to tears. Kaip referenced court documents that outlined how the sisters assaulted the man with items like a kettle and a whiskey bottle.
She argued that their isn't enough proof the sister are innocent in Dolff's death.