WRONGLY CONVICTED MAN SEEKS BAIL TODAY AFTER SPENDING 36 YEARS IN PRISON
PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Innocence Canada May 23, 2025
Today, Roy Sobotiak who has been in prison since September 27, 1989, has a bail hearing in the King’s Bench Court in Edmonton at 10:00 a.m.
After his arrest in 1989, Mr. Sobotiak was convicted on July 11, 1991, of the murder of Susan Kaminsky in Edmonton, Alberta. He was never granted bail before his trial. On February 26, 2025, the then Minister of Justice Arif Virani quashed Mr. Sobotiak’s conviction for second degree murder and directed a new trial.
Innocence Canada assisted Mr. Sobotiak in his application to the Minster of Justice to set aside his conviction.
Mr. Sobotiak was immediately transferred from Bowden Penitentiary in Alberta to the local detention centre in Edmonton to await his new trial. Today will be the first time he has ever sought bail and Innocence Canada Counsel will be representing him at today’s bail hearing.
Mr. Sobotiak is the longest serving wrongly convicted person in Canadian history. The previous longest serving person was Romeo Phillion who spent more than 32 years in prison before the justice system accepted that he had been wrongly convicted.
For further information, please contact:
James Lockyer at 416-613-0416 or jwilockyer@yahoo.ca.
Katie Clackson at 780-719-9204 or kclackson@legalaid.ab.ca.