-
- Update on wrongful convictions in Canada, October,
2004 | Beginning
of this story | Sophonow 3 |
Sopnonow 4 | Jack
Ewatski |
-
- Terry
Arnold found dead - March 2005
-
 New : Blogging
RCMP informants
| Explosive: The
Mikolajewski Report (pdf file) exposes the shoddy work done
on this case and how Jack Ewatski helped block a proper re-investiagtion
to protect a retired inspector and the secrets a warranted search
of his premises would reveal
-
- Thomas Sophonow
(2)
-
City pays $1M for Sophonow
compensation
Steve Lambert, Canadian
Press, December 6th, 2004
THE Manitoba government will
get a cheque in the mail from the City of Winnipeg this week
for just over $1 million -- money that stems from the wrongful
murder conviction of Thomas Sophonow.
"I think we're quite pleased
that the entire matter of Thomas Sophonow and his case has been
resolved," Bruce MacFarlane, Manitoba's deputy attorney
general, said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
A judicial inquiry three years
ago awarded Sophonow $2.6 million in compensation for being wrongfully
convicted of strangling Barbara Stoppel, 16, at a Winnipeg doughnut
shop in 1981.
Following the judicial inquiry
by retired Supreme Court Justice Peter Cory, Cory suggested the
city should pay half of Sophonow's compensation, the province
should pay 40 per cent and the federal government 10 per cent.
The city initially balked at
the suggestion it should pay the largest portion of the bill,
and negotiations with the other levels of government soon got
underway.
By February of 2003, Sophonow
received his full compensation, but the Manitoba government paid
Winnipeg's share up front. The city indicated it would repay
the province after collecting money from its insurance company.
The city put the cheque in
the mail last Friday, MacFarlane said.
-
The Thomas
Sophonow story is of great importance to all Canadians. Thomas
Sophonow is not the first Canadian to have been framed by lazy
police -- who become malicious as they cover up their laziness.
There have been a great many murder convictions of innocent Canadians.
Each time a Donald Marshall or David Milgaard story hits the
news, the refrain is that this is an "isolated case."
These cases
are not isolated. They are part of a trend. And it is not just
the police. Prosecutors get into the game -- presenting cases
against people they know are innocent -- and then sometimes these
cases land in front of a judge who learned his/her ethics as
a prosecutor.
Thomas Sophonow
has done all Canadians a tremendous service. He has fought for
what he himself believed was right every step of the way. He
has bravely resisted all efforts to wear him down. Getting the
judicial inquiry was a tremendous step forward in this march
towards justice. We can be confident that he will stay with this
case until justice is finally squeezed out of the stone which
is the Canadian Justice system.
-
-
- Settlement:
Feb. 22, 2002
Police must
release report on Stoppel file
Sophonow commissioner
wants lawyers to have access to 'candid' internal review
By Leah
Janzen, Fri, Mar 9, 2001
A "candid"
internal police review of the Barbara Stoppel murder investigation
must be seen by all involved in the Thomas Sophonow inquiry,
commissioner Peter Cory ruled yesterday.
"There
can be no doubt (the report is) relevant,'' Cory, a former Supreme
Court of Canada judge, said from Toronto via a video linkup with
lawyers in Winnipeg and Vancouver.
"They
are the foundation of this inquiry . . . an essential product
for those whose reputations may be at stake."
Thomas Sophonow
spent almost four years in prison for the 1981 murder of 16-year-old
Barbara Stoppel before he was released by the courts. He was
exonerated by Police Chief Jack Ewatski in June 2000 after a
1998 review of the file by Const. John Burchill, one of three
reports under consideration at yesterday's hearing.
Lawyers for
the police service and the province argued releasing Burchill's
report to inquiry lawyers might derail the ongoing investigation
into the new suspect in the murder.
"I don't
think there's been a week gone by where I haven't asked for the
John Burchill report,'' said commission lawyer Richard Wolson.
"The critical point of the inquiry is, what has the re-investigation
of the murder turned up? We need to know that and I believe it
is contained in the Burchill report."
Police lawyer
Marvin Samphir said the report was always meant to remain an
internal audit and does not contain information crucial to the
inquiry.
He argued that
the report was written in a frank and candid way to allow investigators
and the chief of police to have a clear picture of where they
may have gone wrong.
Samphir said
to make it part of evidence would muzzle future cold-case investigators.
"In the
future, people in the position of Burchill will be fearful of
being candid or of feeling free to put forward their comments
to the chief of police,'' he said. "That would be an awful
shame."
But after hearing
submissions from all lawyers, Cory ruled quickly that the report
must be released to all parties at the inquiry within days.
Yesterday's
special sitting of the inquiry marks the second time in as many
weeks that the Winnipeg Police Service has attempted to put up
a roadblock for the inquiry.
On Feb. 26,
police asked to have the entire proceedings halted because they
feared an inquiry might compromise their ongoing investigation
of Terry Arnold, a convicted murderer currently being investigated
as the prime suspect in Stoppel's killing.
The second
phase of the inquiry -- aimed at uncovering what went wrong during
the investigation and conviction of Sophonow -- is to begin March
19.
© 2001
Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
Ewatski defends review's secrecy
Denies trying to bury info
crucial to inquiry
By Leah Janzen, Sat,
Mar 10, 2001
WINNIPEG'S
police chief dismissed claims yesterday he is burying crucial
information by attempting to keep an internal review of the Barbara
Stoppel murder from being used as evidence at the Thomas Sophonow
inquiry.
Police Chief
Jack Ewatski said yesterday the review -- written by Const. John
Burchill after the Winnipeg Police Service reopened Stoppel's
murder case in 1998 -- must remain confidential to protect the
integrity of future police investigations and strategies.
"It's
imperative they aren't brought out into the public,'' he said.
"It's not relevant and it wasn't intended to be used in
an inquiry or anywhere else."
On Thursday,
lawyers involved in the inquiry into Sophonow's wrongful murder
conviction in the Stoppel case, approached former Supreme Court
justice Peter Cory, who is heading the inquiry, asking him to
order that the Burchill report be handed over.
Lawyers for
the police service argued that releasing the contents of the
report would make it difficult to conduct internal audits of
investigations in the future because investigators will feel
less free to be candid about problems with cases.
Cory disagreed
and ruled the report forms much of the basis on which police
exonerated Sophonow last June, so it must form part of the evidence
at the inquiry.
Ewatski said
he and police service lawyers are considering whether to appeal
Cory's ruling.
"If we
do appeal, it will be based on the relevance of the report and
the need to keep it confidential," he said, adding the service
has only until Monday to determine whether to challenge the ruling.
Ewatski said
the inquiry is free to call its own witnesses and evidence in
order to reach a conclusion as to what went wrong with the 1982
investigation of Sophonow.
He said he
expects Cory to delve into the investigation and the whole process
that worked to convict Sophonow twice and send him to jail for
Stoppel's murder for nearly four years.
"That's
their (the inquiry's) role,'' he said. "I have no problem
with that. We're not trying to hide anything, but we feel strongly
that this report is not necessary to that process."
The second
phase of the inquiry, aimed at uncovering what went wrong during
the investigation and conviction of Sophonow, is to begin March
19.
Sophonow suggests putting his lawyer beyond his
reach at Winnipeg inquiry
SCOTT EDMONDS, Canadian
Press, January 17, 2001
WINNIPEG (CP)
- Thomas Sophonow, whose problems with lawyers have become legend,
suggested Tuesday he shouldn't be directing the next one set
to represent him at an inquiry into his wrongful conviction.
Instead, he
suggested lawyer Peter Wilson be appointed to act for him but
as a friend of the court, so that he would not have to take direction
from Sophonow if they disagreed. "I need his attention and
his energy channelled at the issue at hand," Sophonow said
after returning to testify for a second time at the hearings.
"I'd be
really a hindrance to him."
Wilson is supposed
to represent Sophonow as the inquiry probing why he was convicted
of a murder he didn't commit moves into its next phase starting
March 12.
Sophonow, a
British Columbia man, was tried three times, convicted twice
and spent almost four years in prison for the 1981 murder of
Winnipeg waitress Barbara Stoppel before he was set free by the
Manitoba Court of Appeal.
Sophonow noted
the problems that surfaced repeatedly with Lyle Harris, who has
represented him at the inquiry's first phase dealing with the
issue of compensation. It wraps up this week.
"Over
the last couple of months since this started, there has been
a great deal of stress between myself and Lyle . . . You don't
know how many times I fired him. I fire him, my wife hires (him.)"
Harris and
inquiry counsel Richard Wolson both tried to talk Sophonow out
of distancing himself from Wilson.
Retired Supreme
Court justice Peter Cory, who is heading the inquiry, also asked
Sophonow to think the matter over carefully before making his
decision final. The issue may not be resolved publicly until
the inquiry resumes in March.
Earlier at
the inquiry, Sophonow's scorn and anger at lawyers who represented
and prosecuted him at his three trials boiled over frequently.
He confessed he has little use for lawyers in general.
As the compensation
phase of the hearings winds down - submissions were expected
to conclude Tuesday - Harris made a pitch for a generous lump
sum payment.
"There's
no law that says Thomas Sophonow should be compensated,"
he said. "All we have are the conscience of society and
a sense of what is right and what is just."
Harris didn't
provide a specific figure. He said he would do that at a later
date.
Some of his
calculations hinge on what emerges at the next phase of the inquiry,
which will look at the conduct of police and justice officials,
but Harris said compensation will help more than just Sophonow
and his family.
"There
will be closure for the entire province and indeed the entire
country."
As for government
lawyers who suggest compensating Sophonow would "open the
floodgates," Harris said the facts are so specific that
is unlikely.
"Our common
sense tells us that this is a very exceptional case."
A lawyer representing
the City of Winnipeg urged Cory to apply the same cap on Sophonow's
compensation that's applied to personal injury claims.
Canada has
legal precedents that strictly limit general damages for things
that can't be quantified. It's sometimes referred to as the $100,000
rule, although inflation has raised the amount to closer to $300,000
today.
David Milgaard
has received the record payment so far in Canada for someone
who was wrongly convicted.
The Saskatchewan
and federal governments agreed to pay $10 million for the 23
years he spent in prison for the murder of nursing assistant
Gail Miller. His innocence was eventually proved by DNA evidence.
Another man,
Larry Fisher, was convicted in 1999 of the killing but is appealing
his conviction.
© The
Canadian Press, 2001
Sophonow
inquiry resumes
CBC Newsworld, Mon Dec 11,
2000
WINNIPEG -
A public inquiry is scheduled to resume Monday to determine how
much money Thomas Sophonow should get for being wrongfully convicted
twice of murder.
The B.C. man,
now 47, spent nearly four years in prison after being found guilty
of strangling a Winnipeg teenager in 1981.
He was finally
acquitted in 1985 and then released, but his name was not officially
cleared until six months ago when the police announced that they
had a new suspect.
The hearing,
which began in November, is reviewing Sophonow's ordeal
including his arrest, prosecution at three trials, and imprisonment,
as well as his shattered life after being released.
It's also looking
at the way police officers and Crown attorneys handled the case,
especially the way questionable testimony was obtained from prison
informants.
"He's
been through a tremendous ordeal, he has suffered greatly,"
says Richard Wolson, the inquiry's lawyer.
When the hearing
began, Sophonow testified for two weeks, describing in detail
how the wrongful conviction ruined his life.
He said he's
had to cope with everything from stress-related medical problems
to the humiliation and frustration caused by people who still
think he's guilty.
Several psychiatric
experts are now preparing to offer their opinions about his condition,
and what they think he's owed in compensation.
Lawyers say
it's the first time in Canadian history that an inquiry has been
asked to determine how much cash to give someone wrongfully convicted
of murder.
Hearing will decide compensation for Sophonow
CBC Newsworld Tue Nov 7,
2000
WINNIPEG -
Thomas Sophonow, who was wrongfully convicted of a 1981 murder,
fought back tears as he testified at an inquiry that will decide
how much to compensate him for his ordeal.
Sophonow served
four years in jail for the murder of 16-year-old Barbara Stoppel
before he was exonerated this year.
Sophonow, who
now lives in Vancouver, testified for more than four hours on
Tuesday. He said that while he was being interrogated by police,
he became convinced that he strangled Stoppel.
Sophonow said
the two officers suggested he had blacked out and killed the
girl at a doughnut shop during a short visit to Winnipeg.
He said they
told him his fingerprints were in the shop and five witnesses
could identify him. Sophonow testified he just wanted the intense
interrogation to stop.
He added that
his repeated requests for a lawyer were ignored.
Winnipeg police
apologized to Sophonow in June.
Police have
identified a man serving out a murder sentence in B.C. as a suspect
in the case.
Evidence misused: lawyers:
Tunnel vision plagued case
By GREG Di CRESCE -- Police
Reporter, June 9, 2000 , Toronto Sun
Thomas Sophonow
fell victim to a pernicious virus that can plague criminal investigations
and prosecutions -- tunnel vision, said two top defence lawyers.
"Tunnel
vision occurs when you get an exaggeration of evidence that supports
the case of the Crown and the police investigation and a downplaying
of what doesn't," veteran criminal lawyer Hersh Wolch said.
This "closed-mindedness"
is evident, he said, in many cases that have resulted in wrongful
convictions, such as Sophonow and David Milgaard.
Milgaard was
convicted in the 1969 murder of Gail Miller. He spent 23 years
in prison before the Supreme Court overturned the guilty verdict.
DNA testing
proved Milgaard didn't rape a 20-year-old nursing aide in Saskatoon,
Wolch said.
But investigators,
convinced of Milgaard's guilt, said it was possible Larry Fisher
had raped her and Milgaard killed her afterwards.
"That's
a classic example of tunnel vision, where evidence that points
in one direction is forced in another," Wolch said.
Sophonow's
three trials were riddled with examples of tunnel vision, said
lawyer Greg Brodsky, who represented him in the 1983 trial.
Winnipeg police
originally fingered Sophonow for the 1981 slaying of Barbara
Stoppel. He was tried three times for second-degree murder --
the first trial ended in a hung jury, and the other two ended
with guilty verdicts. The Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled the
guilty verdicts couldn't stand and said he could not be retried
for homicide.
Yesterday,
any doubt of Sophonow's innocence was dispelled when Winnipeg
police said he wasn't responsible for Stoppel's death. Sophonow
spent 45 months in jail for the crime he didn't commit.
"What
I still find so sad about all this is that it took so long,"
Brodsky said.
Brodsky said
a side effect of tunnel vision in this case was the Crown's reliance
on jailhouse informants.
"The use
of jailhouse informants is a terrible, terrible way to secure
a conviction. How can information from someone who has an obvious
interest in the outcome be considered reliable?" he said.
Brodsky and
Wolch praised the Winnipeg Police Service for having the "courage"
to reopen the case and expose some of its "warts" to
the public.
Fifth
Estate probes Sophonow snitch
By PAT ST. GERMAIN Winnipeg
Sun, Wednesday, November 22, 2000
A jailhouse
rat who claimed Thomas Sophonow confessed to the 1981 murder
of Winnipeg teenager Barbara Stoppel has made a career of testifying
in murder trials, according to CBC's The Fifth Estate.
Tonight's story
on the newsmagazine, presented by Diana Swain on Ch. 2 at 8 p.m.,
looks at the case of B.C. resident Douglas Martin, who's testified
in at least nine murder cases despite having more than 100 convictions
for crimes including fraud and perjury.
"It's
the sort of story I've always enjoyed, where you can really get
into something. We've been immersed in this story for two months,"
Swain said from Toronto yesterday.
She says Martin,
who is not in prison now, had already testified in eight cases
since the '70s when he popped up last fall as the only material
witness in the case against Newfoundlander Shannon Murrin, who
was acquitted of the 1994 murder of eight-year-old Mindy Tran
in Kelowna, B.C.
Cecil Rosner,
acting senior producer on The Fifth Estate, says it's rare for
anyone other than a series host to have the lead story. But Swain,
who won a Gemini Award last month for Best Anchor for her role
in 1999 provincial election coverage, has an increasingly prominent
national profile. She'll be one of three sub-anchors joining
The National's Peter Mansbridge on Parliament Hill for federal
election night coverage Monday.
An inquiry
is considering what compensation Sophonow should receive for
his wrongful conviction. Sophonow, who was tried three times,
spent four years in prison for the Dec. 23, 1981 murder. He was
freed in 1985 on appeal, but was only recently fully exonerated
of suspicion.
At least three
jailhouse rats testified against Sophonow, a factor that prompted
the provincial Department of Justice to announce in July it had
set new guidelines for using informants to prosecute cases.
Swain says
what happened in the Sophonow case could happen to anyone, and
Martin's story raises the question of why B.C. prosecutors were
willing to use Martin's testimony despite his record.
A jailhouse
rat who claimed Thomas Sophonow confessed to the 1981 murder
of Winnipeg teenager Barbara Stoppel has made a career of testifying
in murder trials, according to CBC's The Fifth Estate.
Tonight's story
on the newsmagazine, presented by Diana Swain on Ch. 2 at 8 p.m.,
looks at the case of B.C. resident Douglas Martin, who's testified
in at least nine murder cases despite having more than 100 convictions
for crimes including fraud and perjury.
"It's
the sort of story I've always enjoyed, where you can really get
into something. We've been immersed in this story for two months,"
Swain said from Toronto yesterday.
She says Martin,
who is not in prison now, had already testified in eight cases
since the '70s when he popped up last fall as the only material
witness in the case against Newfoundlander Shannon Murrin, who
was acquitted of the 1994 murder of eight-year-old Mindy Tran
in Kelowna, B.C.
Cecil Rosner,
acting senior producer on The Fifth Estate, says it's rare for
anyone other than a series host to have the lead story. But Swain,
who won a Gemini Award last month for Best Anchor for her role
in 1999 provincial election coverage, has an increasingly prominent
national profile. She'll be one of three sub-anchors joining
The National's Peter Mansbridge on Parliament Hill for federal
election night coverage Monday.
An inquiry
is considering what compensation Sophonow should receive for
his wrongful conviction. Sophonow, who was tried three times,
spent four years in prison for the Dec. 23, 1981 murder. He was
freed in 1985 on appeal, but was only recently fully exonerated
of suspicion.
At least three
jailhouse rats testified against Sophonow, a factor that prompted
the provincial Department of Justice to announce in July it had
set new guidelines for using informants to prosecute cases.
Swain says
what happened in the Sophonow case could happen to anyone, and
Martin's story raises the question of why B.C. prosecutors were
willing to use Martin's testimony despite his record.
Terry Arnold found dead
| Sophonow
. . .continued
|
