The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has dismissed a request to appeal the bail denial for William Sandeson, a former Nova Scotia medical student who is accused in a 2015 murder.
Bail was originally denied in a 2021 hearing. This was Sandeson’s third failed attempt to be granted bail on appeal.
Sandeson was convicted in 2017 of the first-degree murder of fellow Dalhousie University student Taylor Samson, and has been in custody since his arrest in August 2015.
That murder conviction was overturned in 2020, after Nova Scotia’s top court ordered a new trial, saying the lower court judge had infringed on Sandeson’s right to a fair trial. The accused has remained in custody as he awaits a second trial, set to begin in January 2023.
Sandeson has applied for bail three times over the past seven years, and has been denied by the court each time. Last year, Justice James Chipman’s reasons for denying bail were subject to a publication ban in order to protect Sandeson’s right to a fair trial. In October of 2021, Sandeson appealed that latest denial.
On Thursday, the bail denial appeal was unanimously dismissed by judges in Court of Appeal. Details from the hearing were placed under a publication ban, and may not be reported.
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