QUOTES OF THE DAY: "Innocence Canada lawyer) James Lockyer said today: “Of all the cases we have worked on, this is by far the longest a wrongly convicted person has been in prison. All of us at Innocence Canada are delighted by today’s development. We wish Mr. Sobotiak all the best and will be there whenever he needs help in the future.” Katie Clackson of Legal Aid Alberta said: “There is an important lesson to be learned from Mr. Sobotiak’s case. A justice system can go wrong and when it does, it can do irreparable harm.” Joanne McLean, another Innocence Canada lawyer who worked on Mr. Sobotiak’s case, said: “Innocence Canada has been helping wrongly convicted individuals for 33 years now. We are pleased to have helped Mr. Sobotiak in his quest to prove that he was wrongly convicted."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " Sobotiak told a variety of stories, first repeating the death was an accident but adding that he'd transported her body from his mother's home in a duffel bag, dismembered it in his apartment, and disposed of it in two dumpsters. Then, he said he'd strangled her after a sexual encounter. The fourth and final time, after the officer told Sobotiak about "the importance of his confession as a means of entry into their criminal organization," he repeated the story, claiming he "just went berserk." Sobotiak was arrested the next day. The man he had been spending time with was officially revealed to him as a police officer."
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BACKGROUND: (On this 'Mr. Big' case): From CBC News report by Madeline Smith (link below), published on May 24, 2025. when a new trial was ordered, under the heading, " Review of Sobotiak murder conviction revealed undisclosed police evidence, court filing says," and the sub-heading, "New trial ordered for Roy Sobotiak, 61, after he spent nearly 36 years in prison."…"Sobotiak's lawyers argued the Mr. Big operation that was used to elicit Sobotiak's original confession was abusive, and can't stand up to legal scrutiny. In a Mr. Big sting, undercover police officers draw a suspect into a fictitious criminal organization. A Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2014 set new standards for how this evidence can be used, with stricter rules about the legal admissibility of confessions made during these kinds of investigations. In this case, the written arguments say, the operation came with implicit threats of violence and induced Sobotiak to confess by portraying membership in the fake criminal group as a path to emotional and financial security. "The officers preyed on his vulnerabilities: his poverty, his mental health problems and his addictions," the brief says. "It is surprising that Mr. Sobotiak held out as long as he did." Sobotiak consistently denied any involvement in Kaminsky's disappearance over nearly 11 months of the Mr. Big sting — which started after police investigated Sobotiak through surveillance, wiretaps and a police informant who lived with him for several months. Details of the investigation were revealed in court during the original trial. Starting in October 1988, an undercover Edmonton Police Service detective befriended Sobotiak and took him along to staged drug deals and fake scouting trips to search for places to hide a dead body. The detective also bought Sobotiak food and alcohol, and paid him for being a "lookout" during drug transactions. By September 1989, police decided to try getting Sobotiak drunk "to see if it would cause him to 'say something.'" The undercover officer then pushed for details about Kaminsky's death in a hotel room, while Sobotiak drank an entire 26-ounce bottle of vodka. In the videotaped meeting, Sobotiak becomes visibly intoxicated. The officer continued to press him with statements including, "'Our circle' knew he had killed Kaminsky and he needed to be honest if he wanted to be in their organization." Sobotiak then "adopted" the officer's suggestion that Kaminsky died by accident, the lawyers' brief says. He said she fell and broke her neck while he was trying to carry her down the stairs at his mother's house. The undercover detective prompted Sobotiak for details of Kaminsky's death in three more meetings over the following week. Sobotiak told a variety of stories, first repeating the death was an accident but adding that he'd transported her body from his mother's home in a duffel bag, dismembered it in his apartment, and disposed of it in two dumpsters. Then, he said he'd strangled her after a sexual encounter. The fourth and final time, after the officer told Sobotiak about "the importance of his confession as a means of entry into their criminal organization," he repeated the story, claiming he "just went berserk." Sobotiak was arrested the next day. The man he had been spending time with was officially revealed to him as a police officer."
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INNOCENCE CANADA RELEASE: (Announcing recent staying of the charge): On recent staying of the charge): "Almost 36 years after his arrest and 2 months after his release on bail, the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service has stayed the second degree murder charge against Roy Sobotiak. Arrested on September 27, 1989 for the 1987 murder of 34-year-old Susan Kaminsky, Mr. Sobotiak, then 26, had never had a moment of freedom until his release on bail on May 23 earlier this year. He acknowledged through his counsel then that it would not be easy to adjust to a very different world from what he knew in 1989. “I was 26 when I went in. I am 61 now. Everything will be different.” After his conviction in 1991 for second degree murder and after losing all his appeals, Mr. Sobotiak tirelessly championed his own cause. He wrote a 1000-page hand- written request to the Parole Board of Canada for a pardon. In 2021, he was told to write to the Minister of Justice. He did, and Department of Justice officials were sufficiently troubled by his case that they asked Innocence Canada to assist him. We did, and on February 25, 2025, then Minister of Justice Arif Virani quashed the second-degree murder conviction and directed a new trial. By the time of his release on bail in May, Mr. Sobotiak had spent more years in prison than any other victim of a wrongful conviction in Canadian history, a dubious honour. Mr. Sobotiak was to have appeared in King’s Bench Court in Edmonton this morning to set a date for his new trial. Instead, Alberta has entered a stay of proceedings, which means that the case is now over, and Mr. Sobotiak is a free man with no restrictions on him for the first time since the day of his arrest in 1989. In the 2 months since his release on bail, Ms. Sobotiak has been doing well in an assisted living environment in Fort McMurray. The Director tells Innocence Canada that he is welcome to continue living there, and Mr. Sobotiak intends to do so, at least for the time being, as he continues his readjustment to life in the outside world. James Lockyer said today: “Of all the cases we have worked on, this is by far the longest a wrongly convicted person has been in prison. All of us at Innocence Canada are delighted by today’s development. We wish Mr. Sobotiak all the best and will be there whenever he needs help in the future.” Katie Clackson of Legal Aid Alberta said: “There is an important lesson to be learned from Mr. Sobotiak’s case. A justice system can go wrong and when it does, it can do irreparable harm.” Joanne McLean, another Innocence Canada lawyer who worked on Mr. Sobotiak’s case, said: “Innocence Canada has been helping wrongly convicted individuals for 33 years now. We are pleased to have helped Mr. Sobotiak in his quest to prove that he was wrongly convicted”.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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