Court to decide whether to release Sask. Saulteaux sisters during wrongful conviction review of murder case | 24CA News

Warning: This story comprises distressing particulars

A pair of Saulteaux sisters who’ve been within the jail system for nearly 30 years for a homicide they are saying they did not commit may have their alternative to argue for a conditional launch this week.

Odelia Quewezance, 50, and her sister, Nerissa Quewezance, 48, have been incarcerated since they have been 21 and 18 after being convicted of the second-degree homicide of Kamsack, Sask., farmer Anthony Dolff in February 1993.

Court heard throughout their trial that Dolff took the 2 sisters, who’re from Keeseekoose First Nation, and a cousin of theirs to Dolff’s dwelling close to Kamsack, Sask., about 230 kilometres northeast of Regina.

Dolff allegedly propositioned the ladies, and in some unspecified time in the future the trio robbed him, resulting in a confrontation the place he was stabbed a number of occasions, strangled with a phone twine and had a tv thrown on his head. 

The sisters’ cousin has admitted quite a few occasions to killing the older man, together with through the ensuing trial, and to an APTN investigation.

Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance have vehemently maintained their innocence for many years. Advocates have pointed to court docket paperwork, particularly these outlining how the sisters’ cousin confessed to the homicide, as proof of their innocence.

A two-day listening to will start Tuesday to find out if the sisters might be launched, and beneath what circumstances, as their conviction undergoes a ministerial evaluate to find out if there was a miscarriage of justice. 

“This is their first opportunity for bail since their arrest on Feb. 25, 1993, and they are very much looking forward to it,” mentioned James Lockyer, considered one of their defence attorneys and co-founder of Innocence Canada, which works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted.

While the listening to on Tuesday is just like a bail listening to pending enchantment, it is a particular judicial invention to permit individuals conditional freedoms whereas they await the outcomes of a judicial evaluate.

In late November, at a listening to the place the court docket thought of whether or not the conditional launch listening to could be topic to a publication ban, Odelia mentioned, “the truth is coming out, we’re finally going to get justice.”

A welcome again to the neighborhood

Chief Lee Ketchemonia of Keeseekoose First Nation mentioned the neighborhood will present help to the sisters if they’re launched and select to return, although he is not sure if there might be an accessible dwelling for them given the neighborhood’s lack of housing.

“This is a wrongful case and if they were wrongfully convicted of course we’re going to try and give them as much support as [we] can,” mentioned Ketchemonia, who grew up with Odelia and in contrast her to an enormous sister.

Ketchemonia mentioned band council members wish to see the sisters reintegrated into the First Nation.

In the three a long time the sisters have been incarcerated, a whole lot of the individuals the sisters grew up with, like their grandparents, have died, Ketchemonia mentioned.

Ketchemonia attended the publication ban listening to in November to offer help. The Crown had requested the ban. The defence, CBC and APTN all opposed it. The decide determined towards the ban.

“I just hope that the truth really comes out,” Ketchemonia mentioned.

Quewezances’ conditional launch listening to

Both sisters have a felony historical past spanning into their youth, in line with parole paperwork, together with assault expenses and being unlawfully-at-large throughout their parole after their conviction. 

Documents additionally define the sisters’ traumatic childhood experiences, together with bodily and sexual abuse, enrolment in residential faculties and a household historical past of substance abuse, psychological well being points and felony involvement.

Kent Roach, a University of Toronto regulation professor and skilled in wrongful convictions, mentioned that whereas the Crown might level to the these previous occasions as threat components, they “also need to be contextualized within the experience of … Indigenous women in jail but also the experience of someone who honestly believes they were wrongfully convicted.”

“We neglect that David Milgaard, maybe Canada’s most celebrated wrongfully convicted particular person and one thing of a nationwide icon, escaped from jail,” Roach mentioned. “I would hope that if [Milgaard’s] case was coming up today we wouldn’t say we’re not going to grant bail because you once escaped from prison.”

According to Roach, the sisters should show their launch is within the public curiosity, probably pointing to the info of the case, although the decide can determine how deep they wish to delve into these info’ deserves.

If the sisters are launched, the court docket will set circumstances. Roach referenced the case of Glen Assoun, who spent 17 years in jail for a homicide he did not commit. Assoun was beneath strict launch circumstances, together with digital monitoring he paid for and being required to report any conferences he had with ladies.

Roach mentioned he is conscious of eight instances that had a bail listening to pending a ministerial resolution and all besides one ended with conditional launch.

Advocates proceed to name for exoneration

The sisters’ cousin, who was 14 on the time, confessed to Dolff’s homicide through the trial, in line with court docket transcripts, admitting that he had lied about a number of facets about how Dolff’s dying unfolded. The cousin confessed that it was him that mentioned “let’s kill him,” not Nerissa, as he had beforehand mentioned.

The cousin was convicted of second-degree homicide.

The ministerial evaluate of the sisters’ conviction — which is the final likelihood at freedom in spite of everything avenues of enchantment have been exhausted — might result in a brand new trial, a brand new enchantment, a query of regulation referred to the provincial or territorial court docket of enchantment, or a dismissal of the applying.

The resolution might take years, although federal justice division mentioned in-custody candidates take precedence. 

Ultimately, it might result in Odelia and Nerissa’s exoneration, an consequence advocates like Ontario Senator Kim Pate have endorsed.

She mentioned that regardless of the sisters’ historical past, just like the crimes outlined in parole paperwork, she does not consider their launch will improve a threat to public security.

“What is publicly available, with respect to Nerissa and Odelia, is the most negative interpretation of everything they’ve ever done, I would argue, since they were in residential school and the child welfare system and the prison system,” Pate mentioned.

“That is not necessarily the person or the people that I know, or that their families know.”

Pate has co-authored studies on human rights in prisons and, in May 2022, a report on the “Injustices and Miscarriages of Justice Experienced by 12 Indigenous Women” together with the Quewezance sisters.

Since 2003, the entire 20 exonerated individuals have been males and solely two weren’t white, in line with the report.

“If [Odelia and Nerissa] are successful in terms of the hearing for judicial interim release, it shows that, in fact, Indigenous women may have some hope that the system is trying to change to address the discriminatory components,” Pate mentioned, pointing to the excessive incarceration charges of Indigenous ladies.

As of Dec. 25, 2022, 40 of the 47 ladies in federal custody in Saskatchewan have been Indigenous, that means Indigenous ladies make up 85 per cent of the federal jail inhabitants within the province, in line with the Office of the Correctional Investigator.