Read more on the Connie Oakes case here
Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
CALGARY—A Calgary judge denied an appeal bail application from a Cree woman who says she was wrongfully convicted for murder.
Justice Brian O’Ferrall issued the ruling against Connie Oakes’ appeal bail Friday afternoon. Her appeal bail hearing was held on May 19.
Oakes was hoping to obtain bail so she could be with her 22 year-old son who is dying from cancer.
A sobbing Oakes said she was devastated by the ruling.
“I am never going to see my baby alive,” said Oakes, in a phone interview with APTN National News shortly after she learned of the ruling.
Oakes’ son Joseph Carry was told by his doctor in late April he has mere weeks left to live. Carry married his long-time sweetheart during a wedding ceremony held at his family’s ranch last Saturday.
Oakes must now wait for her appeal hearing which is scheduled for Nov. 12.
Her appeal is partly based on a fresh evidence application stemming from an affidavit signed by the Crown’s main witness against Oakes during the murder trial. A jury convicted Oakes of second degree murder for the killing of 48 year-old Casey Armstrong, who was found dead in the bathtub of his Medicine Hat, Alta., trailer.
With no murder weapon, DNA or fingerprint evidence linking Oakes to the murder, Medicine Hat police and the local Crown relied on the testimony of a self-described small town crack dealer named Wendy Scott who has an IQ of 50.
Scott, who also pleaded guilty to killing, has since changed her story and now says in a sealed affidavit that Oakes wasn’t at the trailer when Armstrong was killed. She is also trying to have her guilty plea quashed.
Scott alleges she was fed evidence by Medicine Hat police while she was stoned during coercive interrogation sessions that lasted six months longer than was disclosed to Oakes’ defence lawyer. Scott initially accused three other people of the murder before naming Oakes.
@JorgeBarrera
hang in their cuzin <3
What a sad story, just because she’s native they are going to make her wait till it’s to late to see her son ,this is so not right, if she’s innocent let her go she’s has spent enough time behind bars for something she didn’t do, if this was a white person would they be treated the same way. I think not, I feel so bad for this lady!!