Thomas Sophonow (born March 1953[1]) is a Canadian who was wrongfully convicted of murder and whose case was the subject of a major judicial inquiry. Sophonow was tried three times in the 1981 murder of doughnut-shop clerk Barbara Stoppel. Sophonow spent four years imprisoned. In 1985, he was acquitted by the Manitoba Court of Appeal.[2] A commission of inquiry was called by the province of Manitoba which led to the 2001 release of the Thomas Sophonow Inquiry Report.[3][4][5] This inquiry was led by former Supreme Court justice Peter Cory.[2] As a result of this report, Manitoba revised its policy of using prisoners in-custody as informants. This policy is located at Appendix F of the report.[6] The inquiry also made 43 recommendations[2] of which 11 related to the Province of Manitoba.[5]
