Nepoose case under review

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Forty-five-year-old convicted killer Wilson Nepoose of Hobbema says he's "doing life for a crime I didn't commit."

The attorney general's department is still "looking at " a letter from investigator Jack Ramsey, which says Nepoose, of the Samson band, is innocent and has already spend four years rotting in prison for nothing.

Nepoose's family also says he's innocent - and wants a retrial.

"We're still looking at Mr. Ramsay's letter," says an information officer in the AG's department. "We have been receiving a number of documents and will reply soon.

Ramsay sent the letter Sept.12.

A former RCMP officer, Ramsay says Nepoose, convicted in 1986 for the strangulation death of Rose Marie Desjarlais, was sentenced because of poor police work, a shoddy defense and lies forced by police out of two key witnesses.

He also say evidence he' uncovered clearly shows Nepoose wasn't near the murder site al the time of the killing.

Ramsay, who is calling for a public inquiry into a racism-based "gross miscarriage of justice," calls the Nepoose conviction Alberta's Donald Marshall case.

Marshall, a Micmac Indian, spent 11 years in a Nova Scotia prison for a murder he didn't commit. An inquiry found he was convicted due to racism, poor police work and perjured evidence.

Ramsay says prosecution witness Delma Bull had told him police intimidated her into lying. Bull couldn't be reached for comment.

Wilson Nepoose, in a letter to Windspeaker, says " was falsely charged and convicted of murder."

He's serving his life sentence at the maximum security Prince Albert, Sask. penitentiary.