""IT'S A TRAGEDY ALL ALONG THE LINE, FOR EVERYBODY. IN A SENSE WE ALL COULD BE VICTIMS OF IT, INCLUDING THE PROSECUTION AND THE JURY.''
WASYLINIUK SAYS HE FEELS FOR THE JURY, 12 PEOPLE FROM THE COMMUNITY, WHO LISTENED TO THE EVIDENCE AND ASSESSED WHAT THEY HEARD FROM BOTH THE PROSECUTION AND DEFENCE.
"HOW DO YOU THINK THEY FEEL? NOW 12 YEARS LATER, SHE WASN'T SEXUALLY ASSAULTED OR MURDERED.''
REPORTER LINDA RICHARDSON; THE SAULT STAR;"
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Background: (Wikipedia account); William Mullins-Johnson of Sault Ste. Marie was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Valin Johnson after a two and half week trial in September 1994.[4] He was convicted after a jury trial in which Smith’s evidence played a major role in determining the time of death, the cause of death and whether the girl had been sexually assaulted. Mullins-Johnson had babysat Valin, 4, and her 3-year-old brother on the evening of June 26, 1993.[4] When the girl's mother returned home, she did not check on her daughter. At 7 a.m. the next day she found Valin dead in bed. A local pathologist performed an autopsy on Valin. Then "consultation reports" were sought from Smith and four other specialists, based on tissue samples and other evidence from the autopsy. Smith was the only consultant to conclude Valin was sexually assaulted at the time of death. That contradicted the defence's point that Valin, who had a history of vomiting in bed, might have died of natural causes. The jury convicted, which the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld in 1996. The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed a further appeal in 1998. Attempts were made to clear his name based on available DNA technology, but the tissue could not be located by Smith, who was given the evidence by the pathologist who did the autopsy, until 2005, 11 years after the trial, when the missing tissue samples turned up in Smith’s office. William Mullins-Johnson was released on bail in 2006, pending review of his case. On July 16, 2007, a report by three expert pathologists (a report written unbeknownst to the lawyers working on his behalf) determined there was no evidence that the girl was sexually assaulted, and the Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, said that William Mullins-Johnson's conviction “cannot stand” and that he should be acquitted by the appeals court. On October 15, 2007 he was acquitted by the Ontario Court of Appeal.
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Reporter Linda Richardson's interview with prosecutor Glen Wasyliniuk appeared in the Sault Star earlier today under the heading: "'Everybody was wrong' about Mullins-Johnson — An interview with the Crown Attorney who prosecuted the case."
"William Mullins-Johnson, wrongfully convicted in the 1993 death of his young niece, was caught in a "perfect storm,'' says the now-retired Crown attorney who prosecuted the case," the story began;
""When you look at how everything came together, it was a perfect storm, to his obvious detriment,'' Glen Wasyliniuk said in a recent interview," it continued;
"Mullins-Johnson spent 12 years in prison for the rape and suffocation of his four-year-old niece Valin Johnson.
He was exonerated in October 2007, after a review sparked by the Association in Defence of the Wrong-fully Convicted discredited the medical evidence used to convict him.
Several experts found no evidence to support disgraced forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Smith's conclusion the girl had been sexually abused and asphyxiated.
"Knowing what we know now since the Goudge inquiry, since that examination, we probably wouldn't prosecute it,''Wasyliniuk said.
A 1,000-page report by Justice Stephen Goudge, released in 2008, slammed Smith, along with Ontario's former chief coroner and his deputy, for their roles in numerous wrongful convictions.
Looking back at the 1994 trial, one of many he successfully prosecuted in his nearly 30 years in the local Crown's office, Wasyliniuk said: "You work with what you've got.''
And at that time what the Crown had, was a young victim, believed by everyone to have been sexually assaulted, he said, listing some of events that came together to create such a fateful outcome.
Mullins-Johnson had been babysitting Valin the evening before she died, and his grandmother testified at trial that he told her something awful had happened and he had to leave the house, Wasyliniuk said.
There was forensic evidence of strangulation and sexual assault, and testimony from Smith, then considered the preeminent expert in the field of child abuse.
As well, experts called by the defence "agreed that she had trauma to her neck and agreed there was evidence of sexual assault,''Wasyliniuk said.
And when Mullins-Johnson's lawyer addressed the jury he said the girl obviously had been assaulted and killed, but argued that his client hadn't done it, the former Crown recalled.
Smith has since been exposed, but "no one has taken to task the defence experts,''Wasyliniuk said, adding "that's certainly not to defend Dr. Smith.''
"Everybody was wrong. Everybody certainly felt it was a sexual assault,'' he said.
Calling it "an awful thing,''Wasyliniuk added: "How bad do you feel when he's convicted on the evidence a person was wrong about, except his own defence presented that same type of evidence. That's never reported."
The Crown and police have been accused of proceeding with blinkers on, of perpetrating "another travesty of justice,'' he said, but "the defence has to take some responsibility for it.''
"It's a tragedy all along the line, for everybody. In a sense we all could be victims of it, including the prosecution and the jury.''
Wasyliniuk says he feels for the jury, 12 people from the community, who listened to the evidence and assessed what they heard from both the prosecution and defence.
"How do you think they feel? Now 12 years later, she wasn't sexually assaulted or murdered.''
The story can be found at:
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1691817
UP-COMING POST: WILLIAM MULLINS-JOHNSON CASE; A NOTE FROM THIS BLOG'S PUBLISHER; THERE WAS ONLY ONE VICTIM HERE - ALONG WITH HIS FAMILY AND HIS COMMUNITY;"
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
