Province to review Sanderson murder conviction

Based on the results of a DNA hair analysis, Manitoba Justice will review the conviction of Robert Sanderson, who is serving a life sentence for his part in a triple murder in Winnipeg eight years ago.

Sanderson and two other men were convicted of shooting and stabbing three people to death in 1996. Police said it was 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 found the hair was Sanderson's. However, during a review of murder convictions involving hair samples, DNA tests revealed that the hair was not, in fact, Sanderson's.

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

"The hair evidence in Robert Sanderson's case was likely a very significant factor in his conviction," says James Lockyer, spokesman for the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted. "Our view is that at a minimum, his case should be re-reviewed by the Manitoba Court of Appeal to see whether or not a new trial should be ordered."

Manitoba Justice has agreed to review the case within six months. Bruce MacFarlane, the province's deputy attorney general, stresses that a review does not mean Sanderson is innocent.

"The DNA clearly show that the evidence led at trial was wrong, however, there was other evidence in both cases that tended to point to guilt," he says.

That other evidence includes 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.

Families of the victims in the case are distraught. The uncle of one victim says it's a "travesty of justice" for the province to reopen old wounds. The father of another victim says he hopes further investigation will reveal what he thought all along – that there were other people there at the time of the killing.

Meanwhile, the province has asked the forensic hair-review committee to expand its mandate beyond murder cases, primarily examining cases of sexual assault and robbery.

"If any other serious cases come to our attention where hair comparison evidence was used, we're going to ask the committee to take a look at that as well," says MacFarlane.

The hair review committee has a year to deliver its next report.

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