Ontario Tech University to explore the legacy of wrongful conviction

The goal of the Canadian criminal justice system is to ensure the guilty are convicted and the innocent are acquitted. But sometimes errors are made and those who are innocent spend years behind bars serving time for a crime they did not commit.

A group of Forensic Psychology graduate students from Ontario Tech University have partnered with Innocence Canada to raise awareness about these miscarriages of justice at the university’s sixth-annual Wrongful Conviction Day event on Friday, October 4.

Activities include:

Guest speaker and Q&A

• When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. *
• Where:
  Ontario Tech University
  61 Charles Street Building, Room 217
  Oshawa, Ontario

Hear from:

• 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Jeff Kaplan, Ontario Tech Forensic Psychology PhD student and Director of the Interrogation Evaluation Clinic at Coral Coast Group, who will give a presentation on the role of false confessions in wrongful conviction cases.

• 1 to 2:30 p.m.: Q&A with exoneree Robert Baltovich, who in 1992 was wrongfully convicted for the murder of his girlfriend. Baltovich spent eight years in prison before he was acquitted, and another decade after that trying to clear his name. 
• Media interviews also available with Kimberley Clow, PhD, Professor, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Ontario Tech University, whose research focuses on the stigma of wrongful conviction. 

* Light refreshments available between 12:15 and 1 p.m.

Screening of PBS documentary Death by Fire

• When: 5 to 7 p.m.
• Where:
  Ontario Tech University
  Science Building, Room 2140
  2000 Simcoe Street North
  Oshawa, Ontario

About Wrongful Conviction Day

Wrongful Conviction Day is an international campaign to encourage organizations and the public to set aside one day to focus on and discuss the causes and remedies concerning wrongful conviction: an issue that affects and devastates individuals and societies worldwide.

About Innocence Canada

In the years since its inception, Innocence Canada’s team of volunteers have reviewed hundreds of cases, leading to the successful exoneration of more than 20 innocent individuals who collectively spent more than 200 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Innocence Canada’s team of pro-bono lawyers are currently reviewing approximately 80 claims of innocence in Canada alone.

Patricia Pickett
Communications and Marketing
Ontario Tech University
905.721.8668 ext. 6710
905.809.1675 (cell)
patricia.pickett@ontariotechu.ca