BACKGROUND TO FABRICATED CONFESSION: (Robson Crim Legal Blog);
"On the 17th of July 1973 in the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba, the accused stood charged of the unlawful death of Ting Fong Chan. Chan, 40 years old at the time, was left for dead after enduring a brutal beating in the downtown region of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Upon arrest, Brian Anderson recalls his original interview with police to be rather misleading. Brian was told by police officers that they had witnesses, that the other boys had admitted to the offence, and stated that Brian was there with them. (2) Throughout this interview Brian recalls signing an unknown document, which to his knowledge at the time addressed his possessions, on him at the time of his arrest. This document was later found to be Brian’s confession- produced by officers for Brian to sign as acknowledgement of his involvement. Brian, who struggled with English and had about a grade 6 education, did not have a lawyer present when he signed this confession. (This confession became largely the only evidence relied upon by the Crown- the Crown did not present any physical evidence connecting Brian to the incident, and all evidence presented by the Crown witness was directly contradicted by defence evidence.)
https://canliiconnects.org/content/documents/57136
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Chief Justice Glenn Joyal told a packed courtroom in Winnipeg that Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse were wrongly convicted in 1974 of killing Ting Fong Chan. Not only that, said Joyal, but the men are not guilty. “You are innocent and you deserve the acquittals,” said the judge. “I’m happy to offer an apology on behalf of the institution and system that failed you. “You are heroes in every sense of the word.” Everyone from the police to the prosecutor to the prison system conspired to keep them locked up, he said, but their courage and perseverance prevailed."
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QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY:“The case would not have proceeded today,” Crown attorney Danielle Jules told the court in a brief statement. “It wouldn’t even come close. “It fell well below the expected standards of 1974.” Jules apologized to Anderson and Woodhouse. She said their confessions were “entirely manufactured.” She noted the same Winnipeg police detectives were involved in other wrongful arrests at the time. “Our justice system failed,” Jules said. “They were wrongfully convicted. For that I am sorry.”
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QUOTE THREE OF THE DAY: "Meanwhile, Win Wahrer, a co-founder of Innocence Canada, said the acquittals will forever be Nos. 27 and 28 on its list of wrongful convictions obtained so far. She gave Anderson and Woodhouse black t-shirts proclaiming “Innocent” on the front. “Your names will be added on the back,” she noted."
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STORY: "Two Indigenous men acquitted of murder after 50 years," by Reporter Kathleen Martens, published by APTN News. on July 18, 2023. (Award-winning reporter Kathleen Martens covers western and northern Canada for aptnnews.ca. A veteran of the Brandon Sun, Sun Media and APTN Investigates, she is based in APTN’s head office, specializing in stories about property, women’s rights and community.)
SUB-HEADING: It’s the first double acquittal for Innocence Canada, a national organization that work to overturn wrongful convictions.
GIST: "Two Indigenous men were acquitted of 50-year-old murder convictions Tuesday with the help of Innocence Canada and Manitoba’s top judge.
Chief Justice Glenn Joyal told a packed courtroom in Winnipeg that Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse were wrongly convicted in 1974 of killing Ting Fong Chan.
Not only that, said Joyal, but the men are not guilty.
“You are innocent and you deserve the acquittals,” said the judge. “I’m happy to offer an apology on behalf of the institution and system that failed you.
“You are heroes in every sense of the word.”
Everyone from the police to the prosecutor to the prison system conspired to keep them locked up, he said, but their courage and perseverance prevailed.
Anderson and Woodhouse, who are now senior citizens, shook hands with their defence attorneys, Jerome Kennedy and James Lockyer, following the emotional hearing while spectators in the gallery clapped and cheered.
“Sure, I’m angry,” said Anderson afterwards. “But I just want to be happy.”
The pair said they wanted to celebrate and reflect on the dramatic words they waited half a century to hear.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Woodhouse, who is in a wheelchair due to complications from diabetes and awaiting a kidney transplant.
“I’m a bit tired.”
The men were teenagers when they were arrested and charged by Winnipeg police with the fatal stabbing of the 40-year-old chef. They said police threatened and intimidated them into signing false confessions.
Both had moved to Winnipeg from separate Anishinaabe First Nations in rural Manitoba in search of better lives. They had jobs and were pursuing careers, court heard.
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"They pleaded not guilty but were convicted with the judge in the case deriding their ancestry and accusing them of “a complete fabrication.”
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They pleaded not guilty but were convicted with the judge in the case deriding their ancestry and accusing them of “a complete fabrication.”
They were tried before the protections provided by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and subsequent justice reforms came into effect, the court also heard.
The prosecutor was George Dangerfield, whose string of convictions have slowly unravelled and left a permanent stain on the reputation of the Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba Justice.
Two high-profile exonerees – Thomas Sophonow and Frank Ostrowski – were in the courtroom Tuesday to support Anderson, they said.
“The case would not have proceeded today,” Crown attorney Danielle Jules told the court in a brief statement. “It wouldn’t even come close.
“It fell well below the expected standards of 1974.”
Jules apologized to Anderson and Woodhouse. She said their confessions were “entirely manufactured.”
She noted the same Winnipeg police detectives were involved in other wrongful arrests at the time.
“Our justice system failed,” Jules said. “They were wrongfully convicted. For that I am sorry.”
The Manitoba government has paid millions of dollars in compensation to several exonerees from Dangerfield’s term as a prosecutor. Something Anderson said he would be seeking as well.
“I think I deserve it,” he told reporters.
Woodhouse, 67, was studying to become an electrician. He said it was devastating to be falsely accused.
“I pushed my family away and isolated myself,” he said, noting he never married. “It was a survival skill.”
Woodhouse spent 23 years behind bars because he said it took numerous tries to obtain parole without admitting guilt.
“Prison was harsh, very harsh,” he noted. “The Parole Board never believed me that I was innocent.”
Anderson was released after serving 11 years in prison to a life of restrictions.
A tragedy
“He spent 38 years on parole,” said Kennedy, the lawyer. “This was a tragedy of epic proportion.
“They have shown what real resilience is [as they continued] to fight to clear their names,” he said of his clients.
“We owe them our respect.”
Lockyer, who helped found Innocence Canada to fight miscarriages of justice, said the men were failed by the justice system “from beginning to end.
“Hearing that it was false confessions doesn’t capture what happened to them.”
Sadly, the case isn’t unique, added Lockyer, referring to the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the nation’s prisons due to “individual and systemic racism.”
Canada needs to acknowledge how its treatment of Indigenous peoples has fuelled wrongful convictions and correct it as a matter of “truth and reconciliation,” he said.
Sets a precedent
The men’s acquittal sets a precedent for other miscarriages of justice involving Indigenous peoples, Lockyer added.
Meanwhile, Win Wahrer, a co-founder of Innocence Canada, said the acquittals will forever be Nos. 27 and 28 on its list of wrongful convictions obtained so far.
She gave Anderson and Woodhouse black t-shirts proclaiming “Innocent” on the front.
“Your names will be added on the back,” she noted.
Family members of the victim were present and declined to be interviewed.
Lockyer said the killer of Chan, who was beaten and stabbed to death, will likely never be known.
Chan’s body was discovered near a downtown construction site on July 17, 1973."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/two-indigenous-men-acquitted-of-murder-after-50-years/
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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