Mountain Institute at Agassiz. A former Vernon man who claims he was wrongfully convicted of murder and has spent a quarter of a century in prison says he wants to tell his story firsthand. Last month, we wrote about the creation of the “Miscarriage of Justice” website created in support of Sebastian Peter Cerra. Cerra is currently incarcerated at Mountain Institution, a medium-security federal penitentiary in Agassiz. He was convicted in 1999 of murdering 24-year-old Ruby Kirkpatrick on the side of Glenmore Road in 1998 over an alleged drug dispute and was jailed for life. An appeal against his sentence was rejected in 2004. After writing about the website, created by Cerra’s childhood friend Roderic Patton, his attorney said Cerra would like to speak directly to the media from inside the prison. Castanet received this permission through Correctional Service Canada and a phone call will be arranged. Patton says new evidence in the case brings attention to “the grim reality that our justice system has been punishing an innocent man for 24 years.” The website claims this includes DNA evidence pointing to other suspects and that new evidence from eyewitnesses and crime scenes was removed by Crown Counsel and the RCMP “to rule out other suspects”. Patton says the case mirrors that of David Milgaard, who was 16 when he was accused and wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of nursing assistant Gail Miller in Saskatoon in 1969. He spent 23 years in prison until his release in 1992. However, the Criminal Sentencing Review Panel rejected Cerra’s claims. “The CCRG contends that this evidence is not new… Having considered all relevant issues, we conclude that your application does not contain new and significant information that would provide a reasonable basis for concluding that a possible miscarriage of justice occurred in your case,” the review team wrote. Patton says the review didn’t look at all the evidence. “At this point, Sebastian Cerra requests your permission to contact you to provide evidence that there is new evidence not presented in court that will exonerate him of this crime,” Patton wrote in an email to Castanet .
