PUBLISHER'S NOTE. An extremely important hearing continues in Toronto tomorrow, Wednesday, June 26. As the reader will see, from this August 10, 2023 story by CTV journalist Abby O'Brien, Tim Rees has asserted from the outset that he is an innocent man who has been wrongly convicted of murdering a young girl - and Canada's Canada's Minister of Justice found that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in his 1990 trial, and referred the case to Ontario's highest court, where Tim Rees, with the assistance of Innocence Canada, and lawyer James Lockyer, he is fighting to be exonerated, by calling evidence - including testimony from the four police officers he believes are responsible for his wrongful conviction - before the three judge panel. Tomorrow promises to be a particularly fascinating day, because the four police officers who Rees says were responsible for his wrongful conviction and years of imprisonment before finally being released, under the strict confines of parole, will be in the hot seat under intense scrutiny by Lockyer, while the prosecutor attempts to defend the police conduct in the case - including the new evidence, according to Innocence Canada that, "The landlord, since deceased, had given a highly incriminating statement to the police hours after the murder but the defence knew nothing of it." Earlier today, Innocence Canada sent out the following message: "If you have the opportunity, please support Tim Rees’ who, all this week is in the Ontario Court of Appeal. He is represented by James Lockyer. Tomorrow court proceedings start at 10 a.m. EST in Courtroom One (130 Queen Street West). Tim testified today and the police will be testifying tomorrow." (The message contains the following Zoom access information - which I have not yet tested.)
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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https://ca01web.zoom.us/j/
Passcode: 482032
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
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STORY: "Man convicted of killing a young girl in Toronto granted a chance at appeal after 34 years," by Journalist Abby O'Brien, published by CTV on August 10 2023. (Abby O'Brien is a Multi-Platform Writer for CTV News Toronto, covering local news in the GTA. Before joining CTV News Toronto, she worked in newsrooms at Narcity Canada, Victoria Buzz and The Martlet. Her freelance work has been published in The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, This Magazine and more. In 2018, O'Brien graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Professional Communications.)
SUB-HEADING: "After serving 26 years in prison for the murder of a 10-year-old girl, a Toronto man will have his case reviewed in court after the federal government found that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred during his 1990 trial.
GIST: "On Wednesday, federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Arif Virani, referred the case of Timothy Rees back to the Court of Appeal for Ontario following an extensive review of the historical proceedings.
“A Minister’s decision to order a new appeal is not a decision about the guilt or innocence of the applicant,” a statement issued Wednesday reads. “It is a decision to return the matter to the courts where the relevant legal issues may be determined according to the law.”
On March 16, 1989, Darla Thurrott was found by her mother strangled in bed at her Etobicoke home.
Tim Rees, 25 years old at the time, had visited Darla’s parents the evening before and stayed overnight, according to legal representative James Lockyer.
In 1990, Rees was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Thurrott and was handed a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 15 years. in 1994, but the application was dismissed.
He served 26 years in prison. In October 2016, he was released on parole.
Rees maintains his innocence to this day. In a statement to CTV News Toronto Wednesday, Rees said that for 34 years, he “has been branded a child killer.”
“I’m not and never was,” Rees wrote. “ I am angry at what the justice system did – for Darla, her real killer got away scot-free [and] for me, I have lost more than half my life.”
NEW INFORMATION SURFACED: MINISTRY
The Ministry of Justice said the decision to send Rees’ case back for review was “a result of the identification of new information that was not before the courts at the time of [the] trial or [initial] appeal.”
According to Innocence Canada, an advocacy group that works to free wrongly incarcerated individuals, the “compelling” evidence in this new submission is an undisclosed tape-recorded statement of the landlord who lived in the same house, and slept across the room from Thurrott,
“The landlord, since deceased, had given a highly incriminating statement to the police hours after the murder but the defence knew nothing of it,” a statement issued by Innocence Canada Wednesday said.
“The landlord was able to testify with impunity, and falsely, that he never had a relationship with Darla and had not been in her bedroom on the night she was murdered.”
It is Innocence Canada’s belief that, if the missing tape-recording had been disclosed in 1989, “it is doubtful that Mr. Rees would ever have been charged, let alone convicted of Darla’s murder.”
The organization says it was originally members of the Toronto Police Homicide Squad who did not reveal the existence of the missing tape-recording in 1989, and that in 2016, it was members of the Toronto Police Homicide Cold Case Squad who found the missing tape-recording after they had been assigned to respond to Innocence Canada’s request for access to files.’
When reached for comment, Toronto police said they would not comment on the case while it was before the courts.
"However, we are confident that all information relevant to this case will be thoroughly considered in the court process," spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said.
'A HUGE STEP FOWARD,' SAYS COUNSEL
Counsel James Lockyer called Wednesday’s decision “a huge step forward in establishing Tim Rees’ innocence."
“He was a victim of extraordinary non-disclosure,” the lawyer said.
Lockyer told CTV News Toronto he doesn’t yet know when the court will begin its review of Rees’ case, but that an appeal will “likely be heard next year.”
Since 1992, much of Lockyer’s practice has been fighting wrongful convictions, including the high-profile case of David Milgaard, a Canadian man wrongfully convicted of rape and imprisoned for 23 years, who dedicated his life to justice activism.
Lockyer recently represented Bernard Doyle, an Ontario man convicted in the death of his partners 10-month-old toddler, resulting in Doyle’s exoneration in June."
The entire story can be read at:
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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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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;
