Justice ministers to discuss wrongful convictions

Manitoba's experience with faulty hair evidence is expected to be on the agenda when the country's justice ministers discuss wrongful convictions in Ottawa this week.

The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted hopes the discussion will lead other provinces to follow Manitoba's example. So far, Manitoba is the only province to strike a committee to review murder convictions where hair-comparison evidence was used at trial.

The government formed the committee after DNA testing showed the science of comparing strands of hair under a microscope was faulty in the conviction of James Driskell.

The committee has since revealed that the hair evidence used to convict two other men of murder was also wrong. Kyle Unger and Robert Stewart Sanderson are still in prison, but justice officials in Manitoba and Ottawa are reviewing their convictions.

• FROM SEPT. 15, 2004: DNA tests show hair evidence in murder trials false

Since September, Manitoba's deputy attorney general, Bruce MacFarlane has briefed his colleagues across Canada about the committee's work. MacFarlane says he has also encouraged them to consider conducting similar reviews.

"We feel passionately about convicting those that are guilty, but we feel equally passionate about ensuring that if there are people behind bars that are factually innocent, that we do something about that," he says.

The government of Ontario is considering a review of its own, but representatives from every other province and territory say they don't have any cases in which hair-comparison analysis was crucial in obtaining a murder conviction.

James Lockyer with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted says that's nonsense.

"They're quite wrong when they say hair microscopy evidence did not play a big role," he says. "It played a big role in every province across the country. So it's very important that these committees are set up."

Lockyer expects the provincial justice ministers will likely discuss hair-comparison evidence during their discussion of wrongful convictions.

Meanwhile, Manitoba has already expanded its initial review. Members of the hair-evidence review committee are now examining cases in which hair microscopy was used in trials for sexual assault and robbery.

Links related to this story:

CBC DISCLOSURE: Forensic hair analysis