Province not swayed by new hair evidence in Sanderson case

Manitoba Justice says a review has shown there was no "obvious miscarriage of justice" in the case of convicted murderer Robert Sanderson, despite testing that showed hair evidence used against him at trial was not his hair.

Sanderson and two other men were convicted of shooting and stabbing three people to death in 1996. Police said the killings were related to a gang war over prostitution.

Sanderson's conviction was based in part on a hair found on the foot of one of the victims. At the time, a police lab determined the hair was Sanderson's. However, during a review of murder convictions involving hair samples, DNA testing revealed that the hair was not, in fact, Sanderson's.

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

The reassessment of the case examined forensic evidence and testimony given at trial and concluded there is still strong circumstantial evidence in the case.

Other evidence at trial included traces of the victims' blood found in Sanderson's car, on the seatbelt and on a baseball bat in the trunk. There were also witnesses, not to the crime, but to events before and after.

As a result, the province will not endorse a federal review of Sanderson's conviction, although officials say they would co-operate with a federal review if Sanderson pursues one.

• MANITOBA JUSTICE: Hair evidence review committee's report (PDF)

James Lockyer, head of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, said he's disappointed with the province's decision.

"A very substantial piece of the Crown's case is now shown to be false," he said. "When the Crown loses a pillar of its case … it seems to me just a matter of pretty obvious justice, and very much in the public interest, that Mr. Sanderson's case be reviewed by a dispassionate Court of Appeal."

Sanderson is serving a life sentence for his conviction. One of the other men convicted at his trial was eventually acquitted after two further trials were ordered by appeal courts.

The province did support a federal review of the case of Kyle Unger, whose murder conviction was also reassessed when the hair-evidence review committee determined hairs used at his trial were also misidentified. Unger is still waiting for the results of the federal review.

• FROM MAY 2, 2005: Unger seeks bail a year after evidence discredited