Poet, songwriter and community activist Nyki Kish is currently serving a life sentence for a murder she did not commit.
Nyki was charged and convicted in 2011 for the stabbing death of Ross Hammond, an internet porn marketing executive with no physical evidence and despite multiple eye witnesses accounts that all verified her story.
Justice Nordheimer convicted her based on cherry picked witness testimony and what he described as “irresistible inferences.” While he acknowledge that the knife (never proven to be the one that killed Hammond) belonged to Faith Watts, he said it likely changed hands several times (possibly even to Hammond’s). Based on the physical evidence (see Clive Wismayer’s paper) it is more likely that two knives were involved in the dispute with the fatal knife carried away by its user — the real killer.
Nordheimer focused less on physical evidence and more on Nyki being stabbed (despite no cuts to her hands), stating that there was an “irresistible inference” that she must have killed Hammond. Police “lost” the videos from 2 surveillance cameras that caught the fight. After spending 3.5 years in an Ontario prison, Nyki’s appeal was just denied. The Justices only considered Nordheimer’s “cherry picked” evidence used in his judgement and ignored glaring contradictions in witness testimony, forensic evidence and the missing/destroyed tapes.
Nyki’s conviction is a travesty of justice that was likely fuelled by a political agenda to pass the Safe Streets and Communities Act – an ironic act considering that Canada has some of the safest streets and communities in the world and a declining crime rate. Bill C-10 will likely worsen the state of affairs by its overreach and overreaction to these imaginary problems.
FREE NYKI KISH!
Nyki was wrongly portrayed in the media as a panhandler. She is innocent and I strongly believe she was used as a scapegoat and a pawn to push the conservative agenda for the Safe Streets and Communities Act. Nyki is finally speaking out against her wrongful conviction and her message is a powerful one:
“So the system is more corrupt and broken than even I believed. I believed in the appeal I just lost. I have believed since the day I was charged that somewhere within the system one of the many pairs of eyes that comprise it would see what has happened and stop it. Now last night I found myself lying awake wishing that I was guilty like they say I am, terrible as this sounds, because then I could at least understand. But then I let my tears out and I stopped wishing such a terrible thing. It is terrible that the violence which erupted on Queen St. West that night led to a man being stabbed and killed. But I have been able to sleep for the near 7 years since it happened knowing that it was not my hands which hurt anyone.
There is a man who is free today however who ought not to sleep so well. And there are police officers who ought not to sleep well either. And there are judges. And let me tell you, when entire institutions, at every level of their function tell you that you did something over and over again, you [begin] to feel mad for knowing otherwise.
I’ve lost touch in the past year with the support I have in the world, with the people who know and who care that I didn’t kill Ross Hammond.
In my frantic state on my birthday in 2007 I did not even realize anyone else had been hurt but me. I screamed and screamed for those police to come and I was so angry at them when they came and told me that I was not their priority. But I called for the police, I didn’t run away that night, I had no reason to. I never spoke about that night again though. This system has told me not to for this reason or that every single day since. But now i have no reason not to speak. There are no avenues or safe guards in the system left to hold onto. I am confronted with the reality that I am systemically abandoned.
I am not abandoned in your hearts though…. except that has been really hard for me to see lately. CSC works very hard to dissociate me from you. And the easy route would be for me to except CSC’s agenda and lie and pretend I am guilty. I can’t do that though, because I did not stab anyone, nor did I know anyone was being stabbed. And no service would be done to anyone by my lying to try to get parole. Just as no service is being done by letting the truth of that night go untold, or by a system remaining complacent in its erroneous and harmful practices, which prioritize convictions and closed cases to understanding truth.
So to Ian Nordheimer, Gray Giroux, all the crowns and now the court of appeals, shame. My family and I and some truly amazing people supporting us now have to do your jobs for you. And we will. That much I know in my hearts. And I feel blessed and thankful and safe because of that knowledge.
I am sorry that I do not reply to all the kind and caring letters I receive and I am sorry that I have let people fight for me outside without fighting beside you in here. I lost my hope but I have again found it and I’ll never let it go again. I’ll use my voice again, to speak not just for me but against the whole insane state of the institutions of law and justice. There is no equality or justness within them.
Thank you for the continued love and support of everyone out there who care about the truth or who care for me or who simply care about people doing the right thing. I’ll do my best to do the right thing too from in here. And that starts by ending the silence I’ve let occur.
So much love and solidarity,
Nyki Kish”
Nyki has many supporters from Canada and around the world. I encourage you to learn more about her case by following the many links provided below. Please help Free Nyki by sharing information about her wrongful conviction:
http://www.injustice-anywhere.org/NicoleKish.html
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4004
http://spottedcouchblog.com/2013/06/18/dear-jailer-free-nyki-kish/
http://spottedcouchblog.com/2013/11/03/media-abuse-and-the-wrongful-conviction-of-nyki-kish/
http://spottedcouchblog.com/2013/11/08/playing-dirty-a-tale-of-false-charges/
http://www.allthingscrimeblog.com/2014/03/12/the-nicole-kish-case-brother-can-you-spare-a-dame/
Written by Lissa Robinson (aka @lissaredshoes)
lissaredshoes
Posted on March 18, 2014
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