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OTTAWA — The federal justice minister has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of murder in Alberta more than three decades ago.
Roy Allan Sobotiak was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Susan Kaminsky, who disappeared in 1987.
The office of Justice Minister Arif Virani said the minister found reasonable grounds to conclude there was a miscarriage of justice in the case.
Virani’s office said Wednesday new information has been identified which wasn’t considered by the courts during the initial trial or appeal.
Innocence Canada, which worked on Sobotiak’s case, said Sobotiak “expresses his gratitude to the minister for his decision and hopes that he will be a free man soon.”
The group said in a press release that Sobotiak, who is now 62 years old, has “always insisted on his innocence and has never been granted parole.”
He is in a federal penitentiary in Alberta and has spent more than 35 years in prison.
Innocence Canada said it has contacted the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service to ask about next steps.
The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed Sobotiak’s appeal in 1994 and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his appeal in 2004.
Sobotiak was convicted in 1991. According to the 1994 appeal court judgment, Kaminsky — whose body was never found — was last seen in Sobotiak’s company.
It noted the “principal evidence” against Sobotiak was video of him admitting to an undercover police officer he was responsible for the killing.
Sobotiak applied to the justice minister’s office for a conviction review in February 2021.
The government press release said the minister’s order is “not a decision about the guilt or innocence of the applicant. It is a decision to return the matter to the courts where the new relevant legal issues may be determined according to the law.”
The federal government is working to set up a new wrongful conviction review body to replace the current ministerial review process, which has been criticized for taking too much time to review too few cases.
Over the past 20 years, there have been 200 applications arguing wrongful conviction and 30 cases have been overturned.
Experts say once it’s set up, the new Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission could see hundreds of applications.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2025.
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press