A Manitoba man who spent 23 years in prison for first-degree murder is on the verge of having his name cleared.
Frank Ostrowski was convicted in 1987 of shooting a drug dealer.
But the federal government deemed the case a likely miscarriage of justice in 2014 and ordered the Manitoba Court of Appeal to review it.
Ostrowski’s lawyer told the court his client should be formally acquitted of the charge, because a key witness lied to the jury and denied getting a deal on other charges for his testimony.
The Crown says it agrees there was a miscarriage of justice and the case should be ended.
But it wants a judicial stay of proceedings instead of a full acquittal.
Crown attorney Randy Schultz says there was other evidence that might cause a jury to link Ostrwoski to the killing, but the passage of time has made it impossible to retry the case.
“The crown has conceded,” Ostrowski said outside court on Monday. “They have no case. It’s all hearsay, theory, conjecture, lies.”
The appeal court judges have reserved their decision, and Ostrowski remains under bail conditions for the time being.
With files from Global Winnipeg