TORONTO - Two Ontario mothers haunted by homicide convictions in the deaths of their babies will file appeals Friday.
Lawyer James Lockyer says an Ontario Court of Appeal judge granted his clients an extension and that he'll appeal the convictions before day's end. Lockyer says an order keeping the women's identities from being made public was also granted today.
The women say that they felt compelled to plead guilty to homicide after disgraced pathologist Dr. Charles Smith implicated them in the deaths.
Both women are among more than a dozen people convicted or charged based, in part, on Smith's findings.
Those findings were the subject of a recent inquiry headed by Mr. Justice Stephen Goudge, who slammed Smith, along with Ontario's former chief coroner and his deputy, for their roles in wrongful prosecutions.
One woman pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1998 and received a conditional sentence and three years probation.
The other was charged in 1992 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1994, and received a suspended sentence and three years probation.
"Probably the next move is for the Attorney General's office to assess their position on the cases," Lockyer said, which he expects to happen in the next three months or so.
The appeals will likely be heard sometime next year, Lockyer added.
