Alberta Attorney General’s judicial review asks for a man convicted of the murder of an Edmonton woman more than three decades received a new trial.
Roy Allan Sobotiak received a new trial in February by the Federal Minister of Justice, Arif Virani, who said there were reasonable reasons to believe that a “spontaneous abortion of justice probably” in the case of Sobotiak.
Alberta Attorney General, Mickey Amery, compensates for that decision and has requested a judicial review.
In a presentation of the Federal Court last week, Amery argues that his federal counterpart did not provide any reason, written or of another, to support his findings that a new trial is justified.
Sobotiak has turned more than 35 years after bars for second degree murder in the death of Susan Kaminsky, 34, a mother of Edmonton who disappeared in 1987.
In a press release on February 26, the Federal Justice Department said that Virani’s decision to order a new trial “was not a decision about the applicant’s guilt or innocence”, but a decision to return the matter to the courts where the new relevant legal problems can be determined in accordance with the law. “
CBC News has sought comments from the Department of Justice about Alberta’s demand for a judicial review, and has asked the Federal Minister to provide more details about why a new trial was justified.
At the request of a judicial review, Amery argues that Sobotiak was sentenced by a jury of his companions, that all his previous appeals have been rejected and that Virani “could not provide reasonably justifiable reasons” for concluding that Sobotiak’s conviction was unfair.
“By communicating his decision to Alberta Attorney General, the minister provided a single correspondence page, and an order signed addressed to the Alberta King Court Bank,” Alberta Justice lawyer John-Marc Dubé wrote in the request notice of March 27.
“The minister’s communication only declared that he had” completely reviewed the matter. “The minister owes a duty of procedural equity to provide Alberta attorney for writing reasons when exercising his discretion to order a new trial.”
Amery said that the Alberta Crown Prosecutor’s Office must know and understand what Virani has believed that a new trial is justified. Virani could not provide any reason about the nature of the spontaneous abortion of justice, Amery argued.
“Directing a new trial after determining that it is a reasonable basis for concluding a spontaneous abortion of justice is probably an extraordinary remedy,” says Amery’s request.
“The public has the right to receive reasonable, sufficient, intelligible and transparent reasons for the minister’s decision to grant the extraordinary remedy.”
According to the Criminal Code, a person who has been convicted of a crime and who has exhausted all the rights of appeal can request the Federal Minister of Justice for a review of his conviction.
Sobotiak asked the minister for a review under section 696 of the Criminal Code in February 2021. The Criminal Conviction Review Group of the Department of Justice of Canada conducted an investigation on behalf of the Minister.
Alberta Attorney General participated in the investigation and would be responsible for any new trial, including the determination of whether there is still a reasonable condemnation probability and if the prosecution is of public interest.
Without a trace
Kaminsky disappeared in February 1987 after one night with friends at a North Edmonton pub.
His car was found abandoned. His body has never been found.
Once he took care of Sobotiak when he was a child. Police determined that he was the last person to see her alive.
Police suspected dirty play, but no charges were presented until 1989 when Sobotiak, then 26 years old, was accused of first degree murder.
The main evidence against him was recorded in the statements made to an undercover police officer in which he boasted that he had tortured, sexually assaulted, killed and dismembered to Kaminsky in his mother’s basement before getting rid of his body in the garbage.
He also confessed the murder during a police interrogation, but then changed his story.
In 1991, he was convicted and then sentenced to life imprisonment without eligibility for more than 16 years.
‘A free man soon’
Sobotiak has continued to insist on his innocence and has never been granted probation.
He previously launched without success for both the Alberta Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Canada.
Innocence Canada, a non -profit organization that advocates unfair sentences, helped Sobotiak in his federal review request.
In a statement last month, Innocence Canada said that Sobotiak, now 62 years old, appreciates the decision and hopes “will soon be a free man.”
A decision of the Canadian probation Board in November 2024 found that the release of Sobotiak would represent an improper risk for society due to its problems with the abuse of substances, its mental health and its continuous failure to claim responsibility for the murder.
“You demonstrated a slightly improved understanding of your crimes; however, you still deny your offense,” the probation Board wrote.
“You continue to claim innocence.”
The federal government is working to establish a new unjust conviction review agency to replace the current ministerial review process, which has been criticized for taking too much time to review very few cases.
In the last 20 years, there have been 200 requests that discuss unfair conviction. Thirty cases have been annulled.
