QUOTE OF THE DAY: "For 40 years, these men have maintained their innocence. It’s a big day for both men. I have been working on their case for six years and they have never faltered in their determination to have their wrongful convictions quashed. At last, they have been vindicated."
Co-Counsel Jerome Kennedy;
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PRESS RELEASE: INNOCENCE CANADA: January 3, 2024;
GIST: "Please find attached an Innocence Canada Press Release regarding today’s GREAT NEWS about the acquittal of Wally Gillespie and Bobby Mailman after a long, courageous battle of 40 years to clear their names.
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Two New Brunswick Men Acquitted of a Murder They Were Wrongly Convicted of
40 Years Ago
This afternoon Robert (Bobby) Mailman and Walter (Wally) Gillespie were acquitted by
Chief Justice Tracey DeWare of the King’s Bench Court in Saint John, New Brunswick, 40
years after they were wrongly convicted in the murder of George Leeman.
On November 30, 1983, Mr. Leeman’s body was found by a jogger in a wooded area in Rockwood
Park, Saint John. Mr. Leeman was the victim of a significant beating, and his body was partially
burned.
Mr. Leeman was living in Saint John in a rooming house when he was murdered.
Between January 19 and 21, 1984, the Saint John Police Service charged Wally Gillespie and
Bobby Mailman with the murder.
Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Mailman both had strong alibis with multiple witnesses placing them
kilometers from the crime scene on the day of the murder. Nevertheless, they were convicted of
the murder on May 11, 1984.
Both were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole eligibility
for at least 18 years.
They have never wavered in insisting on their innocence.
Mr. Mailman who served 18 years in prison, sadly, is terminally ill. He is 76 years of age. He also
lives in Saint John. Mr. Gillespie served 21 years of his life sentence in prison and is presently
living in a halfway house in Saint John. He is now 80 years of age.
Today the two men appeared before the Chief Justice accompanied by Innocence Canada lawyers
Jerome Kennedy, James Lockyer, and Pamela Zbarsky.
They heard the Crown, Karen Lee, advise the Chief Justice that they had no evidence to present to the Court and invited the Court to acquit them both.
The Chief Justice acquitted them and expressed her regret that it had taken 40 years for
this to happen.
She also promised that she would deliver a more substantial judgment tomorrow
afternoon which would address the experiences endured by Mr. Mailman and Mr. Gillespie as a
result of their 40 years of imprisonment and parole.
After the acquittals, Mr. Kennedy said: "For 40 years, these men have maintained their innocence. It’s a big day for both men. I have been working on their case for six years and they have never faltered in their determination to have their wrongful convictions quashed. At last, they have been vindicated."
Co-Counsel Mr. Lockyer said: "The New Brunswick justice system failed these men. There needs to be an accounting when such an injustice occurs. This was a case where the Saint John Police and Prosecution failed to give information that was known to them to the two men which had it been known could have stopped the prosecution in its tracks. We look forward to what the Chief Justice will say tomorrow."
| 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
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PRE-FINAL WORD: ‘We … can be bamboozled by junk science,’ Stephen Goudge tells Guelph audience;
(February 13, 2015): Guelph Mercury;
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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.
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