Warning: This story contains disturbing details
Two Solto sisters who have been in the prison system for nearly 30 years for a murder they say they did not commit will have the chance to argue for parole this week.
Odelia Quevezance, 50, and her sister Nerissa Quevezance, 48, have been in prison since they were 21 and 18 years old after being convicted of the second-degree murder of farmer Anthony Dolph in Kamsack, Sask., in February 1993 Mr.
Court heard during the trial that Dolph took the two sisters, who are from the Keeseekoose First Nation, and their cousin to Dolph’s home near Kamsack, Sask., about 230 kilometers northeast of Regina.
Dolph allegedly proposed to the women and at one point the trio robbed him, leading to a confrontation in which he was stabbed multiple times, strangled with a telephone cord and a television was thrown on his head.
The sisters’ cousin has repeatedly admitted to killing the older man, including during the subsequent trial and to an APTN investigation.
Odelia and Nerissa Quevezance have steadfastly maintained their innocence for decades. Defense attorneys pointed to court documents, specifically those outlining how the sisters’ cousin confessed to the murder, as evidence of their innocence.
A two-day hearing will begin on Tuesday to determine whether and under what conditions the sisters will be released as their sentence undergoes a ministerial review to determine whether there was a miscarriage of justice.
“This is their first chance at bail since their arrest on February 25, 1993, and they are looking forward to it,” said James Lockyer, one of their defense lawyers and co-founder of Innocence Canada, which works to exonerate the wrongly convicted.
Although Tuesday’s hearing is similar to a bail hearing pending an appeal, it is a special judicial invention that allows people parole while they await the results of a judicial review.
In late November, at a hearing where the court discussed whether the parole hearing would be subject to a publication ban, Odelia said, “the truth is coming out, we’re finally going to get justice.”
Odelia Kevezance, 50, stands on the steps where she and her sister were once convicted of a murder they say they did not commit. She remembered looking through some of the uppermost windows almost three decades ago. (Dane Patterson/CBC)
Welcome back to the community
Chief Lee Ketchemonia of the Keeseekoose First Nation said the community would provide support to the sisters if they were released and chose to return, although he was unsure if there would be a home available for them given the community’s lack of housing.
“This is a wrongful case and if they have been wrongly convicted then of course we will try to give them as much support as we can [we] can,” said Kechemonia, who grew up with Odelia and compared her to an older sister.
Ketchemonia said band council members want to see the sisters reintegrated into the First Nation.
In the three decades the sisters have been incarcerated, many of the people the sisters grew up with, such as their grandparents, have died, Kechemonia said.
Chief Lee Kechemonia, left, and Odelia, right. Ketchemonia said the sisters’ detention has been difficult for both friends and family in the Keeseekoose First Nation community. (Dane Patterson/CBC)
Ketchemonia attended the publication ban hearing in November to provide support. The Crown had requested the ban. The defense, CBC and APTN objected. The judge waived the ban.
“I just hope the truth really comes out,” Kechemonia said.
Quewezances parole hearing
Both sisters have criminal histories spanning their youth, according to parole documents, including charges of assault and unlawful discharge while on parole after their convictions.
The documents also outline the sisters’ traumatic childhood experiences, including physical and sexual abuse, boarding school and a family history of substance abuse, mental health problems and criminal involvement.
Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto and an expert on wrongful convictions, said that while the Crown can point to these past events as risk factors, they “also need to be contextualized within the experience of … Indigenous women in prison, but also of the experience of one who sincerely believes that he has been unjustly condemned.”
“We forget that David Milgaard, perhaps Canada’s most famous wrongfully convicted person and something of a national icon, escaped from prison,” Roach said. “I hope if [Milgaard’s] the case was coming up today, we wouldn’t say we won’t give bail because you once escaped from prison.”
LISTEN | The Current’s Matt Galloway talks to Odelia Quevans and attorney James Lockyer in June 2022.
The Current19:24 Indigenous sisters hope for rehabilitation three decades after murder conviction
Sisters Odelia and Nerissa Quevezance were convicted of second-degree murder almost 30 years ago for a crime they say they did not commit. Now federal Justice Minister David Lametty has ordered a review of the sentences to determine whether the Indigenous women suffered a miscarriage of justice. Matt Galloway talks to Odelia about her hopes for vindication; and their lawyer James Lockyer, director of Innocence Canada.
According to Roach, the sisters will have to prove that their release is in the public interest, potentially pointing to the facts of the case, although the judge can decide how deeply they want to delve into the basis of those facts.
If the sisters are released, the court will set conditions. Roach mentioned the case of Glen Assun, who spent 17 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Assun was subject to strict release conditions, including electronic monitoring he paid for and a requirement to report any encounters he had with women.
Roach said he was aware of eight cases where there had been a bail hearing pending a ministerial decision and all but one had resulted in parole.
Defense attorneys continue to call for an acquittal
The sisters’ cousin, who was 14 at the time, confessed to killing Dolph during the trial, according to court transcripts, admitting he lied about several aspects of how Dolph’s death unfolded. The cousin admitted that he had said “let’s kill him” and not Nerissa as he had said before.
The cousin was convicted of second-degree murder and served four years in juvenile detention.
A ministerial review of the sisters’ sentence — which is the last chance for freedom after all avenues of appeal have been exhausted — could result in a new trial, a new appeal, a legal question referred to a provincial or territorial court of appeal, or a dismissal of the application.
Odelia and Nerissa Kevezance embrace outside Yorkton court after nearly two decades of separation. Nerissa was accompanied by an RCMP officer. (Richard Agecoutay/CBC)
A decision could take years, although the federal Department of Justice has said applicants in custody have priority.
Ultimately, it could lead to the release of Odelia and Nerissa, an outcome supported by advocates such as Ontario Senator Kim Pate.
She said that despite the sisters’ history, as well as the crimes described in the parole documents, she does not believe their release will increase the risk to public safety.
“What’s publicly available in regards to Nerissa and Odelia is the most negative interpretation of anything they’ve ever done, I would say, since they’ve been in boarding school and the child welfare system and the prison system,” Pate said.
“It’s not necessarily the person or the people that I know or their families know.”
Pate has co-authored reports on human rights in prisons, and in May 2022 a report on “The injustices and miscarriages of justice experienced by 12 Indigenous women”, including the Quevans sisters.
Since 2003, all 20 people exonerated have been men and only two have been non-white, according to the report.
“If [Odelia and Nerissa] are successful in terms of a judicial interim release hearing, it shows that in fact Indigenous women may have some hope that the system is trying to change to address the discriminatory components,” said Pate, pointing to the high rate of incarceration of indigenous women.
A 2021 Senate report found that 66 percent of women in federal custody on the Prairies were Native.
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