Steven Jones Kelly

Case Summary

Steven Jones Kelly was convicted by a jury in June 2000 of sexually assaulting the complainant at a house party in 1999.1 He was sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment.2

The complainant’s trial testimony was that she had sex with her husband on the night in question and then passed out from drinking, only to awaken to find Kelly having sexual intercourse with her.3 The complainant made a police report and was taken to the hospital for a sexual assault kit. DNA testing was performed, but only semen from the complainant’s husband was found.4

Kelly denied sexual contact with the complainant. He testified that she might have seen him in her bedroom when he went in to search for an alcohol bottle that was hidden in or near the bed. A bottle was in fact found in that location, supporting Kelly’s account.5 The defence theory was that the complainant had misremembered due to being intoxicated, and “was confusing her memory of having sex with her husband with the experience of waking up and seeing . . . [Kelly]’s face as he searched for [the] alcohol.”6

In 2001, Kelly successfully appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories. The court found that the trial judge had not adequately explained to the jury the significance of the DNA testing results, which the Crown and defence had agreed excluded the accused.7 In addition, the court stated that the trial judge had insufficiently instructed the jury on the complainant’s initial police statement, which did not mention having sex with her husband on the night in question.8 The court held that these errors prevented the jury from properly assessing Kelly’s evidence that the complainant had confused him with her husband, due to alcohol-induced impairment of her capacity to comprehend the events.9

The Court of Appeal quashed Kelly’s conviction and ordered a new trial.10 However, the Crown chose to stay the charge against him rather than going to trial again.11 Kelly spent 8 months in prison before his conviction was overturned.12

We include this case because of the indicia of wrongful conviction in the form of the neglected DNA evidence.13


[1] R v Kelly, 2001 NWTCA 2 at para 1 [Kelly]; Kevin Wilson, “Rape conviction quashed”, Northern News Services (27 June 2001), online: <https://nnsl-archive.blackpress.ca/nnsl/2001-06/jun27_01crt.html> (accessed 2 December 2022) [Wilson].
[2] Wilson, supra note 1.
[3] Kelly, supra note 1  at paras 1-2.
[4] Ibid. at para 4.
[5] Ibid. at para 3.
[6] Ibid. at paras 3, 6.
[7] Ibid. at paras 4, 7-8.
[8] Ibid. at paras 4, 6.
[9] Ibid. at paras 5-8.
[10] Ibid. at para 8.
[11] Wilson, supra note 1.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Kelly, supra note 1 at para 7.
 

Case Details

  • Full name:

    Steven Jones Kelly

  • Gender identity:

    Male

  • Race/ethnicity:

    Unknown

  • Age - at the time of conviction:

    Unknown

  • Charges - specific offences:

    Sexual assault

  • Date of conviction:

    2000-06

  • Date wrongful conviction was overturned:

    2001-04-21

  • Sentence - total time served:

    00 years, 08 months, 00 days

  • Legal mechanism by which wrongful conviction was overturned:

    Other

  • Status of alleged crime:

    No Crime Occurred

  • Compensation Received?

    Unknown

  • Guilty plea?

    No

  • Cause(s) of wrongful conviction:

    Kelly was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault after a jury trial, despite exonerating DNA evidence. The Court of Appeal found that the trial judge inadequately explained the evidence to the jurors.