GIST: "It usually is unwise to second-guess a jury verdict, but sometimes you have to wonder: What could they have been thinking? Such is the case with the second-degree murder conviction in St. John, N.B. of Dennis Oland, 47, descendant of a family famous in the province for establishing Moosehead Beer. Jury or not, the verdict does not make sense.........Last seen together by the father’s secretary on a Friday evening just before she left for the day, father and son then were amiably discussing a family genealogy project. Dennis testified he left soon thereafter with his father still at his desk, alive and well. Of anything like anger between them, there was no evidence. Richard Oland’s body was found the next Monday morning. He had been attacked from behind, knocked to the floor and struck 45 times with what police think was a drywall hammer, a specialized tool combining a hatchet blade and a hammer head. Both left deep impressions in the victim’s skull. The weapon has never been found or in any way connected to Dennis Oland. Crime-scene carnage, according to uncontested expert evidence, would have left the perpetrator bespattered in blood. And yet Dennis when he left the meeting with his father appeared typically neat and tidy on security cameras and to witnesses. Police found no blood in the car he drove away from the meeting or on a portfolio or bag he had with him. The pants and shoes he wore likewise were devoid of blood.
Four nearly microscopic specks of the father’s blood were found on a sport jacket Dennis wore that day, but the father was a tactile man who chewed his cuticles and had suffered from a bleeding rash on his scalp. Four specks of transferred blood were more consistent with that explanation that with what amounts to an axe murder. Police blundering rendered suspect even those tiny flecks of evidence. The jacket had been handled when it was taken from Dennis Oland’s closet and stuffed into a paper bag by an officer without sterile gloves.........That investigating police now themselves are being investigated by New Brunswick’s police commission for their lamentable handling of the case is not reassuring. Among other blunders, a back door to the office opening onto a back alley was left unlocked and unattended by police for days after the murder. By then they had used the door and smeared any fingerprints that might have been on it. Police conceded at trial that the back door was a more likely escape route for the killer than the front door that opened onto a busy street and through which Dennis had departed. That was just the start of it. Almost unbelievably, attending police for two days used an office bathroom where the killer might have washed before it was examined, fruitlessly, for forensic evidence. Even worse, after contamination of evidence became an issue, an investigating officer testified that he was urged by a senior officer not to reveal that the senior officer had been unnecessarily present at the crime scene."
The entire commentary can be found at:
http://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/oland-murder-conviction-less-than-convincing
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/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
