Supreme Court of Canada to announce if it will hear Shafia appeal

Supreme Court of Canada (Shutterstock)

OTTAWA—Canada’s highest court is expected to announce today whether it will hear the case of a man convicted of murdering his three sisters and another woman.

Hamed Shafia has asked the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal, arguing new evidence showing he was a youth at the time of the deaths should not have been dismissed.

Shafia and his parents were found guilty in January 2012 of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his teenage sisters and his father’s first wife in a polygamous marriage.

The four bodies were found in a car at the bottom of the Rideau Canal in Kingston, Ont., in June 2009.

Shafia previously filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal for Ontario, alleging new evidence showed he was too young to be tried as an adult and should have been tried separately.

The appeal court found no reason to allow Shafia’s new evidence, which it said was not compelling.

In his application for leave to appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada, Shafia’s lawyers argue the appeal court was wrong and had not applied what is known as the Palmer test for admitting fresh evidence.