PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "“Glen’s passing is a tragic end to a sad life,” said Ron Dalton, the co-founder of Innocence Canada who is himself an exoneree. “He had a difficult life before he went to prison and it got much more difficult while he was in prison. And that homicide is still not solved,” he said. Way was stabbed to death in November 1995 and her body was left in a parking lot behind a Dartmouth apartment building. “There’s a legacy there that whoever killed Brenda Way has never been brought to justice,” Dalton said. Assoun reached a compensation deal in 2021 with the Nova Scotia and federal governments for his wrongful conviction. The amount of the settlement and its details have not been released. “He got some compensation for what he and his family had been through, but that doesn’t buy back the 22 or 23 missing years. Glen’s physical and mental health wasn’t that great when he got out of prison,” Dalton said, adding that he had suffered three heart attacks while in prison. “I don’t think he found a lot of peace. I’ve had Glen over here in P.E.I. at our home for a couple of nights. And he found moments of peace, he enjoyed his freedom a bit, but he was mistreated for so many years that I don’t think he ever fully got peace.”
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STORY: "Glen Assoun: Man wrongfully convicted of second-degree murder, has died," published by CTV News (Atlantic) on June 15, 2023.
GIST: "Glen Assoun, who served almost 17 years in prison for murder until his conviction was overturned in 2019, has died.
Assoun’s lawyer Sean T. MacDonald confirmed to CTV News Thursday that he died Wednesday night at a restaurant in Dartmouth.
Halifax police said they were called to assist EHS with a medical emergency at 11 Fyne Ln — The Keg Steakhouse + Bar — in Dartmouth around 9:50 p.m. Wednesday. Police declined to confirm if EHS were responding to Assoun.
The Halifax man, who was in his 60s, was convicted in 1999 by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court with the 1995 murder of his former partner Brenda Way. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of applying for parole for 18 years.
He spent the next 16 years and eight months behind bars.
In 2014, the federal Justice Department said a preliminary assessment determined there could have been a miscarriage of justice, and an in-depth investigation was ordered before Assoun was released from prison with conditions.
Then in 2019 it was revealed that a joint RCMP-Halifax Regional Police unit had destroyed evidence regarding alternative suspects to Assoun, prior to his unsuccessful appeal in 2006.
The conviction was then overturned.
“Glen’s passing is a tragic end to a sad life,” said Ron Dalton, the co-founder of Innocence Canada who is himself an exoneree.
“He had a difficult life before he went to prison and it got much more difficult while he was in prison. And that homicide is still not solved,” he said.
Way was stabbed to death in November 1995 and her body was left in a parking lot behind a Dartmouth apartment building.
“There’s a legacy there that whoever killed Brenda Way has never been brought to justice,” Dalton said.
Assoun reached a compensation deal in 2021 with the Nova Scotia and federal governments for his wrongful conviction. The amount of the settlement and its details have not been released.
“He got some compensation for what he and his family had been through, but that doesn’t buy back the 22 or 23 missing years. Glen’s physical and mental health wasn’t that great when he got out of prison,” Dalton said, adding that he had suffered three heart attacks while in prison.
“I don’t think he found a lot of peace. I’ve had Glen over here in P.E.I. at our home for a couple of nights. And he found moments of peace, he enjoyed his freedom a bit, but he was mistreated for so many years that I don’t think he ever fully got peace.”
In an emailed statement Thursday, Assoun's lawyer said "our hearts are collectively broken."
"Our prayers are with Glen’s family right now. He was an inspiration and beacon of strength and determination for all of us associated with the innocence movement,” MacDonald said.
Dalton expressed similar sentiments.
“You would hope that Glen’s legacy will live on. He was an inspiration to our organization and to other wrongly convicted people like myself,” he said.
“He was in prison for 17 years, and he was on bail for another five years after that before we could prove his innocence. But he never wavered.""
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FROM THE INNOCENCE CANADA WEB SITE:
"In a Halifax, Nova Scotia courtroom on March 1, 2019, Justice James L. Chipman of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia spoke the words that Glen Assoun had prayed for, dreamed of and fought for, for twenty-one painful and challenging years. For seventeen of those years he was incarcerated in some of the worst prisons in Canada, survived two heart attacks and suffered countless human rights violations. Five of those years Glen waited for the Criminal Convictions Review Group (CCRG) to do their work and for the Federal Justice Minister to make a decision concerning a s.696.1 application based on fresh evidence that was submitted on his behalf by Innocence Canada lawyers in 2013. Those years were grueling, extremely stressful and heartbreaking for Glen, his family and supporters. But Glen never gave up, despite the personal cost. Glen is grateful to Innocence Canada lawyers Jerome Kennedy, Sean MacDonald, Phil Campbell and James Lockyer for staying the course and for their hard work, expertise and dedication to seeing an innocent man vindicated. They also never gave up in spite of the countless roadblocks barricading the way to achieving the goal of Glen’s freedom and exoneration. Justice Chipman had these words to say after he formally acquitted Glen: “Glen Eugene Assoun, during all of this time, you steadfastly maintained your innocence. And with the support of your lawyers, your friends and your family, you kept the faith with remarkable dignity and determination you presented before this court on several occasions, and at times since I first met you on November 24, 2014. You are to be commended for your courage and your resilience. You are a free man. I sincerely wish you every success.”
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
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