{"id":925839,"date":"2026-10-08T23:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925839\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T23:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:16:19","slug":"convicted-murderer-cleared-by-judge-to-go-before-calgary-jury-to-reduce-his-parole-ineligibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925839\/","title":{"rendered":"Convicted murderer cleared by judge to go before Calgary jury to reduce his parole ineligibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Convicted murderer Semere Mehari has been granted the chance to stand before a jury to ask for a reduction to the amount of time he must serve before becoming eligible for parole.<\/p>\n

Court of King’s Bench Associate Chief Justice Blair Nixon approved Mehari’s faint hope application<\/a> in a decision from Oct. 2.<\/p>\n

“I am satisfied that Mr. Mehari has made meaningful rehabilitative progress and that there is a substantial likelihood a jury would reduce the period of parole ineligibility,” read Nixon’s decision.<\/p>\n

The Criminal Code’s faint hope clause<\/a> allows offenders who are serving life sentences with 25-year parole ineligibility to apply for a reduction to their ineligibility after serving 15-years. The clause was abolished by Parliament in 2011, but is available to offenders convicted prior to the change.<\/p>\n

Mehari was convicted of first-degree murder in 2010 for the 2008 fatal shooting of rival drug dealer Efrom Kuflom in a Beltline alley. He has spent roughly 16 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\"Murder<\/p>\n

Murder victim Efrem Kuflon, who was found shot to death behind the wheel of a car in the Beltline in 2008.<\/p>\n

In his decision, Nixon found that the circumstances of Kuflom’s murder weighed heavily against Mehari’s application.<\/p>\n

“The nature of the offence was serious. It was a planned and deliberate murder,” read the decision.<\/p>\n

Nixon goes on to detail that Mehari took time to prepare for the crime, including waiting at the location for at least an hour-and-a-half and wearing gloves and a mask. He also noted that since-retired Justice Sandy Park, who presided over the original trial, described the crime as an “assassination.”<\/p>\n

But Nixon said the seriousness of the original offence could not, on its own, prevent the application from moving forward.<\/p>\n

Instead, he considered Mehari’s conduct and rehabilitation during his years in prison, including his completion of 14 voluntary programs on top of his required programming, his connection to his Muslim faith community and positive work assessments from his various institutional jobs, including being a unit representative between staff and offenders.<\/p>\n

Nixon also noted that Mehari has improved his behaviour and outlook throughout his sentence.<\/p>\n

“Although there have been some missteps, he has generally served his sentence in a proactive and positive manner,” read the decision.<\/p>\n

Mehari initially denied responsibility for the murder, including while pursuing an appeal, but Nixon found that his position had changed. He has since accepted responsibility and expressed remorse, according to the decision.<\/p>\n

Risk assessments place Mehari in the low-moderate to moderate range for general and violent recidivism, while his public safety risk remains moderate due to the seriousness of the crime. Nixon noted psychological evidence did not identify a present barrier to gradual reintegration into society<\/p>\n

A judge will now be designated to assemble a jury to hear Mehari’s application. The jurors will decide between reducing Mehari’s parole ineligibility, granting him immediate eligibility or rejecting his application. No date has been set for it to commence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Convicted murderer Semere Mehari has been granted the chance to stand before a jury to ask for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-925839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}