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The Edmonton Police Service is asking a provincial justice official to intervene over a proposed guilty plea in a child homicide case, saying the agreement constitutes a “miscarriage of justice” and must be reviewed.
In a letter obtained by CBC News, EPS acting executive director of legal and regulatory services Megan Hankewich said it’s an “extraordinary step,” but says the seriousness of the case demands action.
At issue is the killing of an eight-year-old girl, who disappeared from Edmonton in April 2023 and was found dead in Maskwacis, Alta., a few days later. The girl can’t be identified due to a court-ordered publication ban.
A 29-year-old woman, who also can’t be named under a publication ban, was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and indignity to human remains.
EPS said at the time charges were laid that neither could be identified in order to protect the identity of other children related to the girl.
Court information shows that the woman is scheduled for summary disposition — usually indicating a guilty plea to a lesser offence in a criminal case — on Wednesday.
According to the EPS letter, the case is expected to conclude with a guilty plea to manslaughter and an eight-year sentence. Details of the plea, or possible sentencing agreement, have not been heard or confirmed in court.
“Our position is that to allow this plea deal to go ahead would be to bring the administration of justice into disrepute and constitute a significant miscarriage of justice,” Hankewich said in a Sept. 8 letter addressed to Kimberly Goddard, Alberta’s assistant deputy minister of justice.
According to Hankewich, the provincial official has the authority to intervene based on a Supreme Court of Canada case called R. v. Nixon. In that case, an official from the Alberta attorney-general’s office concluded that ending the prosecution in a fatal drunk-driving incident with the proposed plea agreement wasn’t in the public interest.
The Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling confirmed that prosecutors can renege on a plea deal, but situations where it’s proper to do so “are, and must remain, very rare.”
Hankewich said in the letter that the EPS investigation in the child homicide case found details of “significant” child abuse, and police consider the file “to be at the very high end of moral culpability.”
She also said if the plea and sentencing go ahead, and there’s no potential jury pool that could be tainted, police are willing to release “significant information” about the investigation with the public. That, Hankewich said, would let people “properly assess whether this prosecution and plea agreement were conducted appropriately and advocate in the public forum for a stronger prosecution service.”
In a statement Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service said it would be inappropriate for them, or the justice ministry, to comment on the case.
“A fundamental principle of justice is the right of every accused person to a fair trial and the preservation of the integrity of the judicial process,” the spokesperson said.
“Public commentary on a matter that is currently before the courts can risk prejudicing this right.”
