Hearing sets stage for appeal of conviction in 1986 killing

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This article was published 31/05/2017 (2668 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thirty years after he was convicted of first-degree murder, Frank Ostrowski is another step closer to arguing his wrongful-conviction appeal in Manitoba’s highest court.

The 67-year-old appeared in court Thursday as his case moves forward in the Manitoba Court of Appeal. A court-ordered publication ban means no details of Thursday’s hearing can be published to protect the identity of witnesses who may be called to testify — a rare move because appeal courts don’t usually consider new evidence.

As of yet, no date has been set for the appeal to be heard by a panel of judges, who will be tasked with reviewing the evidence used to convict Ostrowski.

Ostrowski, a former hairstylist and cocaine dealer, spent 23 years in prison after he was convicted of ordering the 1986 drug-related shooting death of 22-year-old Robert Nieman.

He was one of three people convicted in Nieman’s death, but Ostrowski has always claimed he’s innocent. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, with a concurrent 15-year sentence for cocaine trafficking.

His earlier appeal in Manitoba and leave to appeal the conviction at the Supreme Court of Canada were both denied, but Ostrowski was granted bail and released from prison in 2009 after new information came to light about how the case was prosecuted in 1987. Lawyers representing Ostrowski learned a secret deal had been made with a key Crown witness who testified against Ostrowski during the trial. The witness agreed to testify in exchange for having a cocaine-trafficking charge against him dropped.

The jury was told no such agreement had been made.

The federal government sent the case to the appeal court for review in 2014, citing a reasonable likelihood of a wrongful conviction. Since then, the case has been inching closer to a Court of Appeal hearing. Ostrowski is being represented by Winnipeg lawyer Alan Libman and Toronto-based lawyer James Lockyer, founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay