The federal justice minister has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of second-degree murder in Alberta more than three decades ago.
Roy Allan Sobotiak was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Susan Kaminsky, who disappeared in 1987.
The office of Justice Minister Arif Virani says the minister found reasonable grounds to conclude there was a miscarriage of justice in the case.
Virani’s office said Wednesday new information has been identified which wasn’t considered by the courts during the initial trial or appeal.
Innocence Canada, which worked on Sobotiak’s case, said Sobotiak “expresses his gratitude to the Minister for his decision and hopes that he will be a free man soon.”
The group noted in a press release Sobotiak, who is now 62 years old, has “always insisted on his innocence and has never been granted parole.”
He is currently in a federal penitentiary in Alberta, and has spent more than 35 years in prison.
Innocence Canada said it has contacted the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service to ask about next steps.
The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by Sobotiak in 1994, and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his appeal in 2004.
Sobotiak applied to the justice minister’s office for a conviction review in February 2021.
The government press release noted the minister’s order of a new trial is “not a decision about the guilt or innocence of the applicant. It is a decision to return the matter to the courts where the new relevant legal issues may be determined according to the law.”
The federal government is working to set up a new wrongful conviction review body to replace the current ministerial review process, which has been criticized for taking too much time to review too few cases.
Over the past 20 years, there have been 200 applications arguing wrongful conviction and 30 cases were eventually overturned.
Experts say once it’s set up, the new Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission could see hundreds of applications.
