PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Jerome Kennedy, a lawyer who represented Mailman and Gillespie, said he was pleased to see an apology from DeWare as part of her written decision. "[DeWare's apology] is very important not only to Mr. Mailman and Mr. Gillespie, but to the administration of justice," said Kennedy, a lawyer with Innocence Canada. "Anytime we have an eminent jurist like the chief justice saying that, ' apologize,' or 'we apologize on behalf of the system,' that's very important."
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STORY: "Judge apologizes to wrongfully convicted Saint John men for failure of justice system," by CBC News, published on January 5, 2024.
SUB-HEADING: "Justice system failed Robert Mailman, Walter Gillespie and homicide victim George Leeman, judge writes."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Robert Mailman, left, and Walter Gillespie were acquitted this week of second-degree murder charges that resulted in convictions in 1984."
GIST: "A New Brunswick chief justice has apologized to two Saint John men who spent 40 years wrongly convicted of a murder they didn't commit.
In a written decision issued Friday, Tracey DeWare of the Court of King's Bench said she's been left to believe that "serious mistakes were made" and that a miscarriage of justice occurred in the case of Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie.
Those mistakes harmed not only Mailman and Gillespie but were also an injustice to the family and friends of George Leeman, who were deprived of answers surrounding the circumstances of his homicide, said DeWare, who had acquitted the men of the murder charges on Thursday.
"The justice system in this case failed Mr. Mailman, Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Leeman," she wrote. "For that, as Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench of New Brunswick, I offer my sincere apology."
Mailman and Gillespie were convicted of second-degree murder in May 1984 for the November 1983 homicide of Leeman.
The two were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years, and maintained their innocence all throughout.
Following unsuccessful appeals and efforts to get their case reviewed, federal Justice Minister Arif Virani announced last month he was overturning the convictions and granting Mailman and Gillespie new trials. Virani said new information led him to believe "a miscarriage of justice likely occurred."
On Thursday, the two men made their first court appearance since their convictions were overturned.
Crown prosecutor Karen Lee told the court she had no evidence to present against the two men, prompting DeWare to find them not guilty of the charges they first faced 40 years ago.
Jerome Kennedy, a lawyer who represented Mailman and Gillespie, said he was pleased to see an apology from DeWare as part of her written decision.
"[DeWare's apology] is very important not only to Mr. Mailman and Mr. Gillespie, but to the administration of justice," said Kennedy, a lawyer with Innocence Canada.
"Anytime we have an eminent jurist like the chief justice saying that, ' apologize,' or 'we apologize on behalf of the system,' that's very important."
Kennedy said that last July, the acquittal of Brian Anderson and Allan Woodhouse of murder in Manitoba prompted an apology from that province's superior court chief justice, as well as the province's attorney general and head of public prosecutions.
It's unclear if the same is planned in New Brunswick.
CBC News has asked the provincial Department of Justice whether Attorney General Ted Flemming plans to apologize for the men's wrongful convictions but has not yet received a response."
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aghttps://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/robert-mailman-walter-gillespie-tracey-deware-1.7075784
| 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
PRE-FINAL WORD: ‘We … can be bamboozled by junk science,’ Stephen Goudge tells Guelph audience;
(February 13, 2015): Guelph Mercury;
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.
