Trial and error: From false DNA to errors on the record, here’s what went wrong at Chris Sheriffe’s trial
At the end of the day, Chris knows that if he had stepped up and said he was involved in the shooting he’d have gotten a deal and would be out of prison by now. But there’s a reason he will never do that.
A trial scheduled for one month becomes two. The Judge is not pleased. It’s now down to 12 jurors to determine Chris and Awet’s fate – but the lone Black juror gets sick so now it’s 11. Among the evidence the jury hears: false DNA evidence that’s not corrected; a transcription of Chris’s own words that is incorrect and not corrected; and the recollections of two police officers whose notes are strikingly similar. And then the jury comes in. At the end of the day, Chris knows that if he had stepped up and said he was involved in the shooting he’d have gotten a deal and would be out of prison by now. But there’s a reason he will never do that.
Audio: CPAC, Ontario Jury Video, EatonCentreShooting, Global TV, Essex County News
Suspicion
Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders, is back with Murder on Mount Olive, an investigation of a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.
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Kevin Donovan is the Star’s chief investigative reporter based
in Toronto. He can be reached at 416-312-3503 or via email:
kdonovan@thestar.ca.
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