Kyle Unger is a free man after Manitoba justice officials withdrew murder charges against him in the 1990 killing of a teenage girl, admitting they don’t have enough evidence to retry him. Unger, 38, had spent 14 years in prison for the killing of 16-year-old Brigitte Grenier. Today, the province’s deputy attorney general told a court that DNA testing shows no trace of Unger on any of the exhibits and does not link him to the crime scene. The acquittal will add to already intense scrutiny of the record of George Dangerfield, the Crown who won the conviction against Unger. Once legendary in provincial legal circles, Dangerfield has now seen three of his high profile convictions overturned— Thomas Sophonow and James Driskell and Unger. A fourth man, Frank Ostrowski Sr., has been granted bail after serving 23 years for the murder of a suspected police informant named Robert Nieman. A federal investigation of that case concluded that a miscarriage of justice had “likely occurred.”
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Contrary to popular belief, the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremonies is, in fact, a decidedly modern affair. The culmination of the torch relay in a grandiose display at the Opening Ceremonies is a relic of the 1936 Berlin Games—just one of many attempts by the Nazi regime to lend a mythical air to the Games. Still, despite its dubious history, the lighting of the cauldron has evolved into one of the most spectacular and ostentatious displays at the Games. And the secretiveness that surrounds the lead-up to the ceremony only lends to the hype.
When it comes to the 2010 Games, the speculation about who will be selected to light the cauldron has coalesced around whether VANOC will go the traditional route and opt for a former Olympian or take the road less-travelled and pick someone from outside the sports world. Facebook groups have popped up promoting everyone from Terry Fox’s mother, Betty, to former Vancouver Canucks captain Trevor Linden. So far, Vancouver’s Olympic organizers have kept a tight lid on who the potential candidates might be. We’ve assembled a list of the names making the rounds, but feel free to add your own in the poll or in the comments below.
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And a guilty man goes free. Kyle Unger should not become a poster boy for the "wrongfully convicted" because he is a confessed murderer. He is being released for three reasons. The location of the murder didn't leave much in the way of forensic evidence; his co-convicted (who implicated him) is deceased and therefore unable to testify; and his confession (although freely given) has been discredited.
So a convicted murderer goes free because of the "innocence project", even though he is not innocent.
What do we say to his next victim and her family? What do we say to Brigitte Grenier's family? They are the real sufferers here. Unger simply spent time in prison paying for his crime.
I hope that we don't compound this tragedy by paying him compensation. If we won't let Thatcher profit from his crime, we shouldn't let Unger either.
The injustice is even worse than the court admitted. An innocent man went to jail (I have worked for years in the legal system and know how easy that is to do) and a guilty one has gone free and after all this time will probably never be caught. Fred if you are assuming that the legal system always gets the right person then I have a bridge in New York you may want to buy. Your type of gulibility should always be taken advantage of.
I was the next door neighbour to Unger's co-convicted, and lived in the community where this happened. Like everyone in our community we followed the case closely and are aware of the facts never entered into evidence.
I am not the gullible one. That is the people who think Unger is innocent. If you believe that it is possible for the innocent to be wrongly convicted, why not that the guilty can be wrong exonerated?