Admitted killer gets bail after 7 years while he waits for new trial

A man who admitted to fatally shooting a person in the back on a street outside a child's birthday party has won bail after almost seven years in custody.

In its decision Thursday, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that keeping Robert Hope in prison pending a new second-degree murder trial, as the prosecution wanted, would be an affront to public confidence in justice.

Hope, then 26, of Fort Erie, Ont., was convicted of second-degree murder in March 2013 for killing Tyrone Johnston — a man known for unprovoked violence — using an illegal firearm in Niagara Falls. He was given life without parole for 11 years.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/admitted-killer-gets-bail-after-7-years-while-he-waits-for-new-trial-1.3745711