"On
the eve of his landmark trial seeking compensation for wrongful
conviction, Ivan Henry has inadvertently learned that the woman who
fingered him had “strong emotional ties” with the lead Vancouver police
detective. Lawyers for Henry, who spent 27 years in prison for
allegedly committing multiple sexual assaults in 1982, complained in
B.C. Supreme Court late Friday that the province and the city of
Vancouver had only accidentally revealed the veritable smoking gun. The
1983 letter, from the first woman to identify Henry well enough to
support criminal charges, should have been disclosed years ago, lawyer
Marilyn Sandford fumed to Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson. “This
was the first identification against our client that the authorities
deemed had any weight and led to his arrest and things went from there,”
Sandford explained. “(The woman) was a key witness for the VPD, a key
complainant.” Henry was freed in 2010, after the B.C. Court of
Appeal declared him acquitted for lack of evidence and because DNA
evidence showed some of the sexual attacks had been committed by another
man. However, the court did not exonerate Henry. Henry sued police, prosecutors and the federal justice minister. Wrongfully convicted individuals usually get payments offered by governments to compensate for their suffering. Henry is thought to be the first forced to sue and face a hardball trial. Both the province and the city insist Henry is not innocent......... On June 21, 1983, after Henry was convicted, but before he was sentenced, the woman wrote to Harkema. “(The
letter) begins with expressions of strong emotional feelings for the
officer and that continues on,” Sandford said. “It’s seven pages in
length.“She says among other things, ‘of all the factors I
weighed in deciding not to go out there for the trial, the one that put
me in the most conflict was you. I didn’t want to let you down, I didn’t
want to disappoint you, and I guess I didn’t want to risk never seeing
you again. There is no way I could tell you this at the time but I
believed in my soul that you understood me at the deepest level and you
have since proven this to me.’”
Friday, August 28, 2015
Bulletin: Ivan Henry: British Columbia: Ian Mulgrew: Long-secret letter lands like a bomb in wrongful conviction lawsuit Opinion: In the letter, a key Ivan Henry accuser shows emotional ties to the lead Vancouver detective. Ivan Henry, who spent 25 years in jail for rapes he did not commit, is suing for compensation. Henry was freed in 2010, after the B.C. Court of Appeal declared him acquitted for lack of evidence and because DNA evidence showed some of the sexual attacks had been committed by another man. However, the court did not exonerate Henry. Henry sued police, prosecutors and the federal justice minister. Wrongfully convicted individuals usually get payments offered by governments to compensate for their suffering. Henry is thought to be the first forced to sue and face a hardball trial. Both the province and the city insist Henry is not innocent. Vancouver Sun;
