STORY: "Ivan Henry ‘misconducted’ his own defence, province claims," by reporter Ian Mulgrew published by the Vancouver Sun on Vancouver Sun
November 23, 2015 5:51 PM.
SUB-HEADING:
"Ivan
Henry was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in 1983. He is suing
prosecutors for allegedly breaching his Charter rights after he was
acquitted in 2010 of 10 sexual-assault convictions."
GIST: "Ivan Henry authored his own misfortune and prosecutors who withheld
evidence shouldn't be blamed for the 27 years he spent in prison, the
provincial government maintains. In a tough-talking defence
against Henry's claims for compensation in B.C. Supreme Court, lawyer
John Hunter said even if the 69-year-old had access to the material, it
wouldn't have made a difference. There is "no smoking gun" that
exonerates him, Hunter insisted, and Henry lacked the requisite legal
skill to use the withheld documents at his trial or appeal of his 1983
convictions for 10 sex assaults against eight women. His ordeal
was his own fault, Hunter charged, adding that Henry "gravely
misconducted" his defence and could have been free in 18-24 months with a
proper appeal. "This is a cautionary tale for those accused of serious crime," Hunter said, and the perils of self-representation. "Our position is simply that in dispensing with the publicly funded counsel, Mr. Henry took on himself the risks involved." This was not a non-disclosure case, the lawyer argued; it was about unwise decisions by someone who chose to defend himself. "How can you have a fair trial if the accused insists on making decisions against their own interest?" Hunter asked. The
province and the federal government are the only parties left in the
suit after the city of Vancouver, which was defending police and
forensic analysts, settled a week ago. The city withdrew its
allegations that Henry was responsible for the crimes and the lead
detective in the case testified the now-dead prosecutor pursued at least
one charge of which Henry was innocent. Hunter responded by
calling the junior prosecutor on the case, who described Henry as a
despicable individual who viscerally revolted jurors, intimidated
victims and mishandled his own defence. "I wanted nothing to do with Mr. Henry," former Crown Judy Milliken testified..........Nevertheless,
she acknowledged she was unaware of much of the police investigation,
the techniques that had been employed or its defects. She also conceded her own memory of events was dim, "what is it, 32 years later?" Still
Milliken didn't see anything wrong with police failing to check out
Henry's alibi because she didn't think it held any water. The only
point of doing so would be to impugn it, she said, prompting Chief
Justice Christopher Hinkson to ask about a prosecutor's duty to be fair. "It's not that the Crown has an obligation to check out every alibi," Milliken replied. As
for the non-disclosure, she blamed the late prosecutor Michael Luchenko
for those decisions — she had nothing to do with disclosure. "I
was junior, I followed along with what Mr. Luchenko did," she said. "And
no, I didn't exercise independent judgment on this case."
The entire story can be found at:
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;
