Back in action: (Catch-up 20): Ivan Henry: British Columbia; W5 takes on the case of this man who was wrongfully convicted and spent 27 years in prison but is still seeking justice - with a forensic twist: "In addition, physical evidence, like hair, fingerprints and semen was never presented in court. "That's not to say that physical evidence wasn't obtained by the police investigators, it was. Bodily fluids were left behind at four of the scenes where Ivan Henry was suspected of committing sexual assaults," said Ward. But the samples that were collected were never presented in court and then lost."

STORY: "Ivan Henry spent 27 years in prison, but is still seeking justice," by Jon Woodward and Chad derrick, published by W5  on November 8, 2014.

GIST:  "In many ways Ivan Henry's case is a textbook example of a wrongful conviction," said Henry's lawyer, Cameron Ward, in an interview with W5. "You have a series of notorious offenses, public pressure coming to bear on the police to find the perpetrator and get him off the streets.".........All along, Henry maintained his innocence. Sitting in his jail cell he wrote and filed applications seeking to overturn his conviction and his sentence. More than fifty were sent to various courts and justice ministers. No one was listening to Henry's appeals, even though he may have been right, according to lawyer Cameron Ward, who took up Ivan's cause. "You have a zealous prosecutor who was trying to get the conviction, and you have investigative techniques that are flawed and faulty," Ward said. Ward picked holes in the case and the evidence that helped convict Henry, beginning with the police lineup. "Obviously anybody viewing that live line-up from an adjacent room would be struck by this extraordinary sight and their attention would be drawn to the person who's in the headlock and obviously he would look guilty," said Ward, who also questioned whether the victims could truly identify their attacker. "All they had was the eye witness testimony of the complainants which came from these assaults that occurred usually in the dark, they were perpetrated by a stranger, the stranger's face was often covered and they were stressful circumstances. Eyewitness evidence is notoriously weak. In addition, physical evidence, like hair, fingerprints and semen was never presented in court. "That's not to say that physical evidence wasn't obtained by the police investigators, it was. Bodily fluids were left behind at four of the scenes where Ivan Henry was suspected of committing sexual assaults," said Ward. But the samples that were collected were never presented in court and then lost.  When DNA technology was developed as an identification tool only a few years later, there was no way to confirm the true identity of the "rip-off rapist".........Ivan Henry was a free man. But although his convictions were quashed, he was not declared factually innocent. This is not uncommon among Canada's wrongful convictions, where few are completely exonerated. He is now suing the City of Vancouver, individual police officers, and the provincial and federal governments for the years he spent wrongly imprisoned. But the Vancouver Police Department has rejected the claim. In their statement of defense the VPD insists that "the quashing of the convictions does not mean that (Ivan Henry) is factually innocent" and that he "committed one or more of the sexual assaults." Unfortunately, evidence which could conclusively clear Ivan Henry -- the bodily fluids collected at the crime scenes more than 30 years ago have been lost -- meaning it is not available for DNA testing. Ivan Henry can neither be cleared nor convicted through forensic analysis. "He's innocent. He didn't commit any of these offenses. The state had the ability to conclusively determine that question if they had kept the DNA from some of these offenses, but it's gone," said Ward. Ivan Henry's civil claim for compensation is expected to go to trial in August 2015.

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/ivan-henry-spent-27-years-in-prison-but-is-still-seeking-justice-1.2093143

See previous post: Charles Smith Blog: "Globe and Mail scribe Gary Mason draws our attention to Vancouver lawyer Joan McEwan's remarkable recently published book "Innocence on trial: The framing of Ivan Henry" - as he concludes that "Mr. Henry’s tragic story deserves to be included in a gallery of the worst examples of wrongful convictions in our country’s (Canada's) history - and that in Canada "the wrongfully convicted are never truly set free." (As Mason notes, one of the many policing abominations occurred when three police officers put Henry in a choke-hold for the line-up photo! HL);"
 http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2014/12/ivan-henry-british-columbia-globe-and.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com. 
Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;