Prosecutor George Dangerfield, behind five wrongful convictions, died in 2023

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This article was published 11/12/2024 (295 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former Manitoba prosecutor George Dangerfield, who was involved in five murder cases later deemed to be wrongful convictions, died quietly more than a year ago.

Friends confirmed he died in September 2023. No obituary or public announcement was made.

Dangerfield played a role in five wrongful conviction cases involving eight men who collectively spent nearly 150 years in prison for the killings.

Many of them — Thomas Sophonow, James Driskell, Kyle Unger and Frank Ostrowski — have become well-known in the Manitoba legal community. These well-publicized cases involved non-disclosed evidence, junk science and secret deals with Crown witnesses.

Two of Dangerfield’s cases resulted in commissions of inquiry and millions of dollars in compensation being paid to the wrongfully convicted.

The most recent Dangerfield case to be overturned involved four Indigenous men from Pinaymootang First Nation. Brian Anderson, brothers Clarence Woodhouse and Russell Woodhouse, and Allan Woodhouse (who is not related to the brothers) were convicted of the 1973 slaying of Winnipeg restaurant worker Ting Fong Chang.

After years of media reports, Innocence Canada — a non-profit organization that identifies and advocates for the wrongfully convicted — took on the case.

In an extraordinary gesture, King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal later overturned the convictions of three of the four men and declared them innocent of the slaying. Innocence Canada has asked Ottawa to also quash the conviction of Russell Woodhouse, so that he, too, can be declared innocent. Russell Woodhouse died in 2011.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca