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Edmonton Riverhawks earn spot in WCL playoffs for first time

File photo. The Edmonton Riverhawks in action during the 2023 West Coast League baseball season at Remax Field, their home ballpark. (CTV News Edmonton) File photo. The Edmonton Riverhawks in action during the 2023 West Coast League baseball season at Remax Field, their home ballpark. (CTV News Edmonton)
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For the first time in franchise history, the Edmonton Riverhawks are going to the West Coast League playoffs.

The team solidified its spot with a 15-4 win against the Nanaimo NightOwls Monday evening.

The divisional series starts Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. MT.

That evening, Edmonton will host the Bellingham Bells from Washington State. 

Bellingham will host Game 2 and 3 if one is necessary.

The Riverhawks had two more regular-season games to play in Nanaimo Tuesday and Wednesday when the playoff spot was confirmed. They beat Nanaimo on Tuesday. 

The team was founded in 2020 but it did not begin to play until 2022 because the WCL cancelled its 2021 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The WCL currently consists of 16 teams. 

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A man who has brain damage has a murder conviction reversed after a 34-year fight

A man who has brain damage and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a shopkeeper in London had his decades-old conviction quashed Wednesday by an appeals court troubled by the possibility police elicited a false confession from a mentally vulnerable man. Oliver Campbell, who suffered cognitive impairment as a baby and struggles with his concentration and memory, was 21 when he was jailed in 1991 after being convicted based partly on admissions his lawyer said were coerced. “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years," Campbell said. “I can start my life an innocent man.” Campbell, now in his 50s, was convicted of the robbery and murder of Baldev Hoondle, who was shot in the head in his shop in the Hackney area of east London in July 1990. He had a previous appeal rejected in 1994 and was released from prison in 2002 on conditions that could have returned him to prison if he got into trouble. Defense lawyer Michael Birnbaum said police lied to Campbell and “badgered and bullied” him into giving a false confession by admitting he pulled the trigger in an accident. He was interviewed more than a dozen times, including sessions without either a lawyer or other adult present. His learning disability put him “out of his depth” and he was "simply unable to do justice to himself,” Birnbaum said. He said the admissions were nonsense riddled with inconsistencies that contradicted facts in the case. At trial, he testified that he was not involved in the robbery and had been somewhere else though he couldn't remember where. A co-defendant, Eric Samuels, who has since died, pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, he told his lawyer Campbell was not the gunman and later told others Campbell wasn’t with him during the robbery. Lawyers continued to advocate for Campbell that he wasn't the killer and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential injustices. The three judges on the Court of Appeal rejected most of Birnbaum's grounds for appeal but said they were troubled by the conviction in light of a new understanding of the reliability of admissions from someone with a mental disability. The panel quashed the conviction as 'unsafe,' and refused to order a retrial.

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