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The photograph below is of 16 year-old Brigitte Grenier who was severely beaten, bitten, struck repeatedly and strangled in June 1990.

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The below video is about Manitoba Crown prosecutor, Rodney Dangerfield and how he prosecuted the wrongful convictions of four Manitoba men including Kyle Unger. The convictions were a result of the Crown using untrustworthy jailhouse informants, coerced confessions, the withholding of crucial evidence and overall questionable evidence and testimony given by witnesses.

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Despite the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial, there are still cases in Canada in which innocent people are convicted - most disturbingly, for murder. the fifth estate investigates the murder convictions of four Manitoba men and the Crown prosecutor, George Dangerfield, who presided over all of them.

In the 1980s, as Manitoba's star Crown Prosecutor, Dangerfield was legendary for his creativity and flair in the courtroom and his apparent disdain for defence lawyers. He was successful in getting convictions for some of the most notorious murder cases in that province. But, two of those convictions have been overturned, charges quashed on a third, and a federal review of a fourth is ongoing, making Dangerfield responsible for the most wrongful murder convictions in Canada. In The Wrong Man, reporter Bob McKeown looks back on the three cases and reveals a possible fourth.

At the heart of the story are three men: Thomas Sophonow, James Driskell, and Kyle Unger. Beginning with Sophonow, the prosecution of their cases covered more than a decade. It would take another decade before their convictions began to unravel, with revelations of the Crown's withholding of crucial evidence, bargains and deals with jailhouse informants, questionable testimony and coerced confessions.

In the past year, the case of Frank Ostrowski of Winnipeg became public and fit a familiar pattern. In 1987, Ostrowski was convicted of a murder he insisted he did not commit. The prosecutor at his trial was George Dangerfield. After 23 years in prison, Ostrowski is now out on bail, awaiting a legal decision that will determine if he, too, will join the list of Sophonow, Driskell and Unger.

In interviews with McKeown, the men reflect on their lost years spent behind bars - reputations destroyed, their own lives and those of their families shattered. As for Dangerfield, he is retired now and living in Vancouver, where McKeown confronts him.

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The Wrong Man - Episodes - The Fifth Estate

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Despite the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial, there are still cases in Canada in which innocent people are convicted - most disturbingly, for murder. the fifth estate investigates the murder convictions of four Manitoba men and the Crown prosecutor, George Dangerfield, who presided over all of them.

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The below link is the Crown's submissions for the acquittal of Kyle Unger.  The submissions include the Court of Appeal's timeline of events for the first-degree murder charge.

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A photograph of Kyle Unger in his hometown after his release from prison and acquittal of first-degree murder

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Below is a picture of Kyle Unger who was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder in 1992 and spent 13 years in prison before his release.

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Queen's Bench on Manitoba's Decision to Acquitt

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Queen's Bench on Manitoba's Decision to Acquitt

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Below is the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba's decision to acquit Kyle Unger on the charges.

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Queen's Bench of Manitoba - Supplementary Decision 

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Queen's Bench of Manitoba - Supplementary Decision 

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The link below is the Supplementary Decision of the Queen's Bench of Manitoba wherein it sets out the conditions of Kyle Unger's release for the wrongful conviction of first degree murder.

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Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba › 2005 MBQB 242 (CanLII)

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A CBC news article after Kyle Unger was acquitted. Kyle describes the feeling as being "surreal".

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Murder charges against Kyle Unger were dropped Friday in a Winnipeg courtroom, ending a 19-year legal odyssey after the Crown determined it didn't have enough evidence to retry him for a 1990 killing.

Don Slough, Manitoba's deputy attorney general, told Justice Glenn Joyal that the charges against Unger are being withdrawn because it would be unsafe to retry him on the available evidence.

Slough said DNA testing shows no trace of Unger on any of the exhibits and cannot link him to the crime scene.

Based on an absence of evidence, Joyal ordered that Unger be formally acquitted of all the charges against him. Joyal then wished Unger "good luck."

"Finally," a smiling Unger, 38, told reporters outside the courthouse. "It's still surreal, almost."

He said the decision marks "the first day of the rest of my life, a new beginning."

An acquittal does not necessarily mean a person is factually innocent, but what it does mean is that "in the eyes of the law, he's an innocent man," Unger's lawyer, Hersh Wolch, told reporters.

Asked whether he was angry about how many years of his life have been wasted, Unger said he wasn't.

"I never was angry - upset, but not angry," he said. "When you feed off anger, it takes more. They already took my younger years away from me. Why let them have my mind?"

Unger spent 14 years in a B.C. prison for the sexual assault and killing of 16-year-old Brigitte Grenier. She was beaten, strangled and sexually mutilated at a rock concert in the small Manitoba community of Roseisle, about 120 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

A new trial for Unger was ordered in March of this year after federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson ruled there was a reasonable likelihood he had been wrongfully convicted.

Unger said on Friday that the hardest part of his ordeal has been "waiting for it to come to an end. It's a long journey."

Wolch did not present evidence for the defence at Friday's hearing. Instead, he went through discredited prosecution evidence against his client then told Joyal the prosecutors "should be ashamed."

"It's not sufficient enough to say those were the standards then. You're wrong, and it had horrible consequences for this young man," Wolch said.

He called Unger's 1992 conviction "a blatant miscarriage of evidence" and "an extreme example of tunnel vision."

Slough told reporters that he spoke to the Grenier family leading up to Friday's events and explained what was going to happen.

"They're devastated by this. They've suffered this horrible loss," he said. "That's all I can say about that. I don't want to repeat the conversation."

Grenier's father, Ron, told CBC News the past 24 hours have been horrible for the family.

"I guess it can't compare to what happened to ... Brigitte. [It's] worse for her because she took the beating and the suffering and the whatever before she passed away," he said. "I'm still alive, I'm still here."

A Canadian first

The acquittal, rather than just a stay of the charges, is a Canadian first, Wolch said.

He said it was "a momentous day."

"The minister rarely from federal [government] sends the matter to a retrial. And then an acquittal? It's virtually unheard of. It is unheard of, so this is huge," he said.

"We do have an historical day today, but we haven't learned enough," he added. "When the Crown calls no evidence, it's because the Crown has no evidence to call.

"We did not fear a trial for a minute, and the reason is this man didn't do the crime. This has all the hallmarks of what causes wrongful convictions."

Wolch said he expects to pursue monetary compensation for Unger.

"We have to sit down and formulate a position, and we will," he said. "I anticipate making an approach for compensation."

But Manitoba Justice Minister Dave Chomiak said Friday afternoon there are no grounds for compensation because none of this would ever have happened without Unger making a confession. For the same reason, there are no grounds for inquiry either, he said.

Confessed to police

Unger had confessed to undercover police who were part of a sting operation known as Mr. Big, in which the officers promised money to a targeted suspect to help them out.

Asked on Friday why he made the confession in the first place, Unger said he was "young, naive and desperate for money."

"They hold a lot of promises to you, so you say and do what you have to do to survive, just like in prison - you have to do what you have to do to survive and get through it."

Unger, who now lives in B.C., was asked whether he intends to move back to Manitoba.

"I don't know. I definitely will be coming back a lot for holidays [to] see my family," he said.

Co-accused committed suicide

Unger was convicted, along with Timothy Houlahan, who was released on bail in 1994 when his conviction was overturned by the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 1994. Houlahan killed himself later that same year.

Although court was told at the time of the trials that Unger and Houlahan did not know one another, Crown prosecutor George Dangerfield argued they conspired to kill Grenier.

Dangerfield, now retired, has made news in recent years as a number of his cases have been overturned as wrongful convictions. Some of those past cases involve Thomas Sophonow and James Driskell.

In September, the case of a fourth Dangerfield murder conviction, Stanley Ostrowski, was put under review. Ostrowski is still in prison.

Appeal initially rejected

Unger's initial appeal to the Manitoba Court of Appeal following his conviction was rejected and leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied. But in September 2004, a forensic evidence review committee established by the province called into question the hair comparison evidence used at Unger's trial.

New DNA testing suggested a strand of hair found at the scene of the crime and originally used to convict Unger did not come from him. Evidence from a jailhouse informant and a police sting operation were also discredited.

Unger's lawyer subsequently filed an application to the minister of justice for a review of the murder conviction. Based on the DNA evidence, a judge of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench said she had "very serious concerns [he] may have been wrongly convicted of murder."

In November 2005, Unger was granted bail pending the minister's decision.

Following Nicholson's announcement in March, Unger's bail conditions were loosened by a Court of Queen's Bench judge in Winnipeg. A curfew restriction was lifted by the court.

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Kyle Unger acquitted of 1990 killing | CBC News

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Murder charges against Kyle Unger were dropped Friday in a Winnipeg courtroom, ending a 19-year legal odyssey after the Crown determined it didn't have enough evidence to retry him for a 1990 killing. Don Slough, Manitoba's deputy attorney general, told Justice Glenn Joyal that the charges against Unger are being withdrawn because it would be unsafe to retry him on the available evidence.

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The Attorney General, Dave Chomiak speaks out about the investigation as he issues apology for the wrongful conviction of Kyle Unger

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Attorney General Dave Chomiak spoke out this afternoon on the acquittal of charges against Kyle Unger related to the murder of Brigitte Grenier in 1990.

Unger spent 14 years in prison for the death of the 16-year-old in Roseisle, Manitoba at a rock concert, but was cleared of those charges earlier this morning in a Winnipeg courtroom.

"The process that was followed was recommended after the Driskell Inquiry. The Crown brought the case to court and called no evidence, bringing it to a conclusion," Chomiak said.

Watch:

RCMP re-investigated the case using today's scientific expertise and disproved hair evidence using modern DNA testing.

Chomiak said compensation for Unger is not appropriate based on external legal advice.

UPDATE: 3:20 p.m. - Unger's lawyer, Hersh Wolch, said at a news conference this afternoon that his client may sue the Manitoba government for compensation. As noted above, the government said today they will not be compensating Kyle Unger.
ChrisD.ca video
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Attorney General's Response to Clearing Kyle Unger | ChrisD.ca

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Attorney General Dave Chomiak spoke out this afternoon on the acquittal of charges against Kyle Unger related to the murder of Brigitte Grenier in 1990.

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This is an article about ghad a theory early on in their investigation that two people had to be responsible for the murder of Brigitte Grenier. Timothy Houlahan had admitted to having consensual sex with the victim that night and also provided a false statement to the investigators accusing Kyle Unger of the murder.

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Police investigating the sexual assault and killing of Brigitte Grenier in 1990 jumped to conclusions and set out to prove they were right, said a lawyer working for Kyle Wayne Unger, who was granted a new trial on Wednesday after a ministerial review of his murder conviction.

"The police formed a theory before they had evidence of it and then made the facts fit into their theory," said lawyer James Lockyer, a well-known advocate for the wrongfully convicted. "And that was fatal."

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced Wednesday morning that a new trial has been ordered for Unger, who spent 14 years in a B.C. prison for the 1990 sexual assault and killing of teenager Grenier at a rock concert in a small Manitoba community.

"I am satisfied there is a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in Mr. Unger's 1992 conviction," Nicholson said.

Unger was convicted, along with another man, of first-degree murder following the death of Grenier, 16, at the outdoor concert near Roseisle, Man., in June 1990. Grenier had been beaten, strangled and sexually mutilated.

Lockyer spoke to the media Wednesday afternoon following a hearing at Court of Queen's Bench in Winnipeg to amend Unger's bail conditions, which were set in November 2005 when he was released from prison.

"[Police] formed a theory early on that two people must have committed this crime, for no reason, but that was their theory, so they managed to find two people who committed it when of course only one really did," he said.

Lockyer also said police and prosecutors kept evidence from the defence during the original trial and used a jailhouse informant who was not credible. He didn't go into details about the latter but said there is new evidence the defence team can present at a new trial.

DNA evidence used to overturn conviction

In 2005, new DNA testing suggested a strand of hair found at the scene of the crime and originally used to convict Unger did not come from him.

Unger's lawyer subsequently filed an application to the minister of justice for a review of the murder conviction. In November 2005, Unger was released at age 34.

Asked if he intends to seek a public inquiry should his client be exonerated, Lockyer said he didn't know.

"That remains to be seen," he said.

Unger's team of lawyers also includes Hersh Wolch, who helped free David Milgaard and was part of the legal team that got Steven Truscott acquitted.

Wolch told CBC News on Wednesday that Unger is pleased with Nicholson's announcement.

"He's always known he's innocent and he's comforted by [Nicholson's decision], but it's still a lot of stress, what he's going through."

Wolch expects the new trial - if there is one - to be held in Winnipeg. But he said he wouldn't be surprised if the Crown decides not to prosecute the case again. If that happens, Wolch would still seek a court date to make his client's exoneration official.

"What they should do, if they don't go ahead, is call no evidence and allow an acquittal to be entered," he said.

Unger's appeals rebuffed by courts

Unger's initial appeal to the Manitoba Court of Appeal following his conviction was rejected and leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied. But in September 2004, a Forensic Evidence Review Committee established by the province called into question the hair comparison evidence used at Unger's trial.

A judge of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench said she had "very serious concerns [he] may have been wrongly convicted of murder," and granted bail pending the minister's decision.

Unger's co-accused, Timothy Houlahan, was also convicted for the murder. He was released on bail after his conviction was overturned by the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 1994. He committed suicide later that same year.

Although court was told at the time of the trials that Unger and Houlahan did not know one another, the Crown prosecutor argued they conspired to kill Grenier.

The prosecutor was George Dangerfield, who has made news in recent years as a number of his cases have been overturned as wrongful convictions. Some of those past cases involved Thomas Sophonow and James Driskell.

Wolch told CBC he believes Houlahan acted alone.

"I think Houlahan was with Miss Grenier in the woods and was rebuffed and attacked her and killed her," he said.

Since Unger's release, Lockyer said the defence team has discovered evidence that Houlahan was a Satanist and the Crown knew it, Lockyer said.

"If you know about what [Satanism] is ... you would quickly understand how that fits the nature of the crime," he said.

For an application for ministerial review to succeed, the minister of justice must be satisfied there is a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred. If this requirement is met, the minister may grant one of two remedies: direction for a new trial or a referral of the matter to the court of appeal to be heard as a new appeal.

As well, the minister has the legal authority at any time prior to his decision to refer a question about an application to a Court of Appeal for its opinion.

Reasons given for new trial

Nicholson said he decided to order a new trial after reviewing:

The investigation report and advice of the department's Criminal Conviction Review Group.

The submissions of Unger's counsel and of the attorney general of Manitoba.

The recommendations of the minister's special adviser on the criminal conviction review process.

As the Unger matter has now been returned to the courts, Nicholson would not comment further.

But his office made it clear that, in rendering a decision on an application for ministerial review, the minister is not making a finding of guilt or innocence. He has no legal authority to make such a finding.

He is simply returning the matter to the courts in circumstances where there is a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.

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Police made evidence fit the crime in convicting Kyle Unger: lawyer | CBC News

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Police investigating the sexual assault and killing of Brigitte Grenier in 1990 jumped to conclusions and set out to prove they were right, said a lawyer working for Kyle Wayne Unger, who was granted a new trial on Wednesday after a ministerial review of his murder conviction.

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AIDWYC is an Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted.  This organization was paramount in the exoneration of Kyle Unger.  The below link will re-direct you to the Innocence Canada website which outlines the facts surrounding the wrongful conviction and Innocence Canada's involvement in Kyle Unger's acquittal.

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We've helped exonerate 21 innocent people since 1993.

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The video below is a re-enactment of the facts of the case leading to the wrongful conviction of Kyle Unger in the June 1990 murder of 16 year old Brigitte Grenier.