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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Manslaughter and Assault/Battery |
Sentence: |
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Years Imprisoned: |
2 |
Year Crime: |
2012 |
Year Convicted: |
2014 |
Year Cleared: |
2019 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Canada |
County or Region of Crime: |
Ontario |
City of Crime: |
Toronto |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"R. S. was 17 when wrongly convicted on March 24, 2014 of manslaughter, aggravated assault, careless use of a firearm, and possession of a firearm without a license or registration in the shooting death of a man on April 12, 2012 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. R. S.'s prosecution was based on him shooting one of five men who he had let into the apartment building in which he lived. R.S. was in fear of his life and had purchased and carried a gun for protection after being shot at on two different occasions in his neighborhood. He let the men into his apartment building on March 24, 2014, who unknown to him were there to attack him. When R. S. turned his back one of the men struck him in the back of his head with a baseball bat. R.S. fell down and his gun fell out of his pocket. R. S. picked up his gun and fired four shots. R. S.'s attacker was struck in the back by a bullet, but he was able to run out of the building and across the street, before collapsing. Another of the five men was grazed by a bullet, but survived. At least two of R. S.'s attackers were members of a local gang known as the Gators. R. S.' defense was he acted in self-defense because he was in fear of his life. R. S. was tried in a bench (judge only) trial. "In convicting the appellant of these offences, the trial judge rejected the appellant’s claim of self-defence. She concluded that the appellant’s act of firing the gun was not objectively reasonable..." The trial judge relied on her presumption the men who attacked him were retreating when R. S. fired the shots, that were estimated to have been fired in five seconds. R. S. appealed. On October 21, 2019 the Court of Appeal for Ontario unanimously quashed all of R. S.'s convictions other than illegal possession of a firearm, and ordered his acquittal, based on his guilty verdicts were unsupported by the evidence. The three-judge panel's ruling stated: "Having reviewed the appellant’s evidence, I am satisfied that the trial judge misunderstood what the appellant said. As I demonstrate below, the appellant did not say that, when he fired the shots, he knew that the attackers were running away, nor can this conclusion be reconciled with the other evidence. ... The proper result in this case is for acquittals to be entered on the charges of second-degree murder, attempted murder, and careless use of a firearm. I reach that conclusion based on my view that the verdicts are unreasonable as they are not properly supported by the evidence adduced at trial. Further, this is not a case where there was an evidentiary error that could be corrected at a new trial. In other words, it is not a case where evidence was improperly admitted or excluded. The respondent laid out the case that it asked the appellant to meet. If there is other evidence that the respondent might have adduced but chose not to, it ought not to be able to correct that tactical decision through a new trial. ... The trial judge’s conclusions are therefore unreliable, especially on the issue of the reasonableness of the appellant’s actions in the context of a defence of self-defence. In this case, her critical factual error makes the verdict an unreasonable one." [R. v. R.S., 2019 ONCA 832 (Ontario Ct. of Appeal, 10-21-2019)]" |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"On October 21, 2019 the Ontario Court of Appeals ordered the acquittal of R.S. manslaughter, aggravated assault, careless use of a firearm on the basis of insufficient evidence." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
19 |
Age When Released: |
21 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"R. v. R.S., 2019 ONCA 832 (Ontario Ct. of Appeal, 10-21-2019) (Ordering acquittal of charges related to use of a firearm.)" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions/2019/2019ONCA0832.htm |
Information Source 2: |
"Appeals court finds Toronto teen gunman acted in self-defence, By Canadian Press, Toronto Sun, October 22, 2019" |
Information Location 2: |
https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/appeals-court-finds-toronto-teen-gunman-acted-in-self-defence |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org