Gerald Barton: Nova Scotia; No compensation for man wrongfully convicted of statutory rape 45 years ago at age 19 on basis of underaged girl's accusation and a police statement in which he says the sex was consensual: In 2008 it was learned that neither was true: The girl had been raped by her brother; It then took three years for the conviction to be overturned. No jail time served but Barton said the conviction was a shadow that hung over him his entire adult life, preventing him from applying for passports and certain jobs and from volunteering. Dale Dunlop, his lawyer, says he believes the case involving Barton, who is black, is the first wrongful conviction to come to light in the province since that of Donald Marshall Jr., a Mi’kmaq man wrongly convicted of murder. “I think (the Appeal Court decision) sends a terrible message to the black and aboriginal community because they were promised that this wouldn’t happen again after the Marshall inquiry, that a young person of colour, who found themselves improperly convicted, that the province promised not to nitpick but to use an independent method of deciding on the amount of compensation,” Dunlop said."

STORY: "Court denies compensation for man wrongfully convicted of rape," by reporter Davene Jeffrey, published by  The Chronicle Herald on April 15, 2015.

PHOTO CAPTION: "Gerald Barton and his wife, Phyllis, arrive at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax last year. Barton was wrongfully convicted of statutory rape in 1970. His Nova Scotia Court of Appeal case, partly involving compensation, was rejected on Tuesday."

GIST: "Gerald Barton has lost what is likely his last chance to be compensated after being wrongfully convicted of statutory rape in this province 45 years ago. On Tuesday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal released a decision rejecting Barton’s arguments that a trial judge had made an overriding error in not finding the RCMP had breached the standard of care in taking a statement from him and that his charter rights had been trampled because the province’s attorney general failed to compensate him. “We’re very disappointed with the decision,” Barton’s lawyer, Dale Dunlop, said in a telephone interview. “It seems that you can be wrongfully convicted in Nova Scotia and have no recourse, and that you can spend years fighting for compensation and justice and there’s no guarantee.” Barton is now a senior living in Alberta, but in 1968 he was a 19-year-old living in Jordantown, just outside Digby. At the time, his alleged victim was an underage girl, who claimed Barton had raped her. Barton had given a statement to police admitting to having had consensual sex with the girl. Neither statement turned out to be true. The girl had been raped by her brother, but that didn’t become known until 2008. In 2011, Barton’s conviction was overturned. He never served any jail time. He was sentenced to one year of probation......... Dunlop said he believes the case involving Barton, who is black, is the first wrongful conviction to come to light in the province since that of Donald Marshall Jr., a Mi’kmaq man wrongly convicted of murder. “I think (the Appeal Court decision) sends a terrible message to the black and aboriginal community because they were promised that this wouldn’t happen again after the Marshall inquiry, that a young person of colour, who found themselves improperly convicted, that the province promised not to nitpick but to use an independent method of deciding on the amount of compensation,” Dunlop said."

The entire story can be found at:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1280565-court-denies-compensation-for-man-wrongfully-convicted-of-rape

 See related CBC story: "Dale Dunlop, the lawyer who represented Barton, says he is extremely disappointed with the court's decision. "I would like to see some reaction from the legal community and in particular perhaps legal academics as to how do we solve this legal quandary," he told CBC's Information Morning. "We now know that people in Nova Scotia can be found guilty of something they never did, suffer with the consequences of that for decades and have absolutely no recourse." Dunlop said it seems as if the province is unwilling to provide compensation for people that are wrongfully convicted. He says this doesn't put Nova Scotia in a very good light. "I was forced to try to prove things that I couldn't prove, largely because the documentation had been destroyed by the province and the RCMP," he said. "The courts operate on the basis of evidence. You make the allegations, but then if the other side won't settle, you've got to prove it. And in this case, with the missing documentation, we weren't able to.""

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/gerald-barton-s-lawyer-dale-dunlop-unhappy-over-court-decision-1.3035371?cmp=rss

Related story: (CTV):  "Preliminary inquiry documents from 1969 were presented in the Supreme Court showing that Barton gave a statement to police.
"There was also no suggestion at the time of improper conduct in how the statement was taken," says Tuesday's appeal court decision. Dunlop argued the confession must have been both false and improperly obtained, as it was clear Barton wasn't the father of the woman's child. He also argued the Charter of Rights and Freedoms may have been violated when the province refused to negotiate compensation with Barton over the past four years. Recommendations stemming from the inquiry into the wrongful murder conviction of Donald Marshall Jr. suggested the province should have had a third party conduct an inquiry and set proper compensation in similar cases, he said. He also said that by refusing to negotiate and forcing the litigation the province was causing cruel and unusual punishment against Barton. But the appeal court rejected that argument, saying it and other charter arguments were "legally and factually without merit." The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal originally quashed Barton's conviction after the complainant withdrew her story. DNA testing showed her brother was 1.9 million times more likely to be the father of the boy than anyone else. His name and that of his siblings and immediate family are protected by a publication ban. The appeal court ruled Barton won't be required to pay the defendants' costs. Dunlop said he is disappointed by the decision and will consult experts on whether an appeal is possible to the Supreme Court of Canada. "I blame it on the Department of Justice and the Nova Scotia government. ... They took advantage of the fact so much time had passed that documents were destroyed and files weren't there," he said. "From Day 1 they took the attitude, 'Mr. Barton, you're getting nothing.' "

 The entire story can be found at:

 http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/nova-scotia-court-upholds-ruling-against-wrongfully-convicted-man-1.2326882

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 

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