Ontario Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman faced public criticism and was directed to apologize to a man convicted of manslaughter for mistakenly imposing a prison term that was two years longer than intended at the conclusion of a high-profile case.
Goodman took over a year to acknowledge that he had meant to sentence Peter Khill to six years in prison for manslaughter, instead of the initially imposed eight-year term. Khill was convicted in the 2016 shooting death of Jonathan Styres, a 29-year-old father of two from Six Nations of the Grand River.
A review panel of the Canadian Judicial Council condemned Goodman’s delay in correcting the error, describing it as a serious ethical breach and a failure. Despite Goodman’s apology during the review process, the panel expressed concerns that he still did not fully grasp how the delay impacted public trust in the judiciary.
Following Khill’s three trials, multiple appeals, and a Supreme Court of Canada ruling, Goodman issued the incorrect sentence in June 2023. It was not until August 2024, during Khill’s appeal process, that Goodman admitted his mistake in a letter to the Court of Appeal, explaining that he had grabbed the wrong printed decision copy and only realized the error as he read it aloud in court.
Goodman consulted with experienced judicial colleagues about rectifying the error but was dissuaded from doing so as the eight-year sentence was deemed acceptable for manslaughter. It was only during Khill’s ongoing appeal that Goodman felt compelled to rectify the situation.
The review panel acknowledged that human errors can occur, understanding Goodman’s mistake in reading the wrong sentence but criticized his unreasonable delay in addressing the issue for over a year. While Khill’s sentence was eventually reduced to six years by the Court of Appeal, the review panel emphasized that the impact of Goodman’s error on Khill was significant, causing Khill to believe he had received a much longer sentence for a considerable period.
Despite the reduction in Khill’s sentence by the Appeal Court, his conviction was upheld. Khill maintained that he had acted in self-defense when he fired a gun upon finding Styres breaking into his truck in February 2016.
Khill attempted to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, but the top court recently declined to hear the case, bringing the legal proceedings to a close without providing specific reasons for their decision.