Funding of wrongful conviction cases; Major development: In bid to correct more miscarriages of justice, Ontario Legal Aid Plan commits to providing AIDWYC (Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted) with $100,000 to help finance expert opinions. AIDWYC says the funding is intended to address the "pressure point" earlier in the process when it is necessary to deconstruct a conviction through other investigations and analysis. "As in the Morin case, overturning wrongful convictions often hinges on challenging forensic evidence presented at trial through new tests and fresh expert testimony, which is expensive. It can also include travel to the crime scene and hiring a private investigator to challenge the work originally done by police." Chair of Legal Aid Plan says, “It is important for lawyers to realize the potential failure of junk science that finds its way into the system and experts who can be fallible."

STORY: "Legal Aid funds wrongful-conviction cases,"  by reporter Rachel Mendelson, published by the Toronto Star on May 14, 2015.

SUB-HEADING:  "Legal Aid Ontario commits $100,000 to the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted to help finance expert opinions."

GIST: "In a bid to correct more miscarriages of justice, Legal Aid Ontario is injecting the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) with significant funding to finance expert opinions, a crucial step to reopening cases. The pioneering funding agreement will give AIDWYC, a non-profit agency with an annual budget of roughly $500,000, with an additional $100,000 in the current fiscal year. Most of the money will go toward challenging evidence presented at trial, while the rest will be devoted to raising awareness about the risks in the justice system that can lead to wrongful convictions......... Legal Aid Ontario chair John McCamus said making the case for supporting AIDWYC is “easily done.” “Citizens who have been wrongfully convicted are most obviously in need of access to justice,” McCamus said. “The stories of people who have been exonerated by AIDWYC are searing stories of personal tragedy, of lives ruined.” Since its inception in 1993, AIDWYC has secured the exonerations of 19 men and women across Canada, beginning with Guy Paul Morin, who was found guilty of the 1984 murder of his neighbour, 9-year-old Christine Jessop, in part due to hair and fibre evidence found in his car. His conviction was quashed in 1995 after DNA testing proved his innocence.......... Oakley said the funding will address the “pressure point” earlier in the process, when it is necessary to deconstruct a conviction through “other investigations and analysis,” she said.  As in the Morin case, overturning wrongful convictions often hinges on challenging forensic evidence presented at trial through new tests and fresh expert testimony, which is expensive. It can also include travel to the crime scene and hiring a private investigator to challenge the work originally done by police. The association’s work also includes the exonerations of Tammy Marquardt, William Mullins-Johnson and Sherry Sherret-Robinson, all of whom were wrongly convicted in the deaths of children due to the flawed testimony of disgraced pediatric pathologist Charles Smith. McCamus said Legal Aid also wants to support AIDWYC’s efforts to increase the understanding of the root causes of wrongful convictions, within the criminal justice system and the public. “It is important for lawyers to realize the potential failure of . . . junk science that finds its way into the system and experts who can be fallible,” he said. AIDWYC is currently reviewing about 100 cases across the country, and is working on about 13 cases in which it believes it has established innocence, Oakley said. “It’s quite possible that there are more of those folks facing wrongful convictions than we’ve been able to get to,” she said. "

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/05/14/legal-aid-funds-wrongful-conviction-cases.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;