PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Gillespie died in April 2024, just a few months after he was finally found not guilty, while Mailman is terminally ill."
STORY: "Innocence Canada responds to wrongful convictions report," by award-winning journalist Reporter Brad Perry, published by Country 94, on March 10, 2025.
GIST: "Innocence Canada describes it as the end of a 40-year journey for two men wrongfully convicted of a 1983 murder in Saint John.
An independent review looking at how the Saint John Police Force handled the George Leeman murder investigation was released on Friday.
Police said “tunnel vision” was the main reason why Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie spent years in prison for a crime they did not commit.
Ron Dalton with Innocence Canada, a non-profit organization that helped to overturn their convictions, said he is not surprised by the report’s finding.
“That’s basically the basis that we went to the [justice] minister on and asked him to overturn the convictions, order a new trial and then they were subsequently acquitted when the Crown presented no evidence,” Dalton, the organization’s co-president, told our newsroom.
RELATED: ‘Tunnel vision’ led to wrongful convictions in Saint John murder
The body of George Leeman was found by a jogger in a wooded area of Saint John’s Rockwood Park on Nov. 30, 1983.
Mailman and Gillespie were sentenced to life in prison without parole eligibility for at least 18 years after being convicted of second-degree murder.
Both men had their appeals to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal dismissed in 1998, and Gillespie was denied leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1994.
Gillespie served 21 years of his sentence before being granted parole while Mailman served 18 years.
Canada’s justice minister ordered a new trial in late 2023 and the Court of King’s Bench found the two men not guilty of second-degree murder in January 2024.
While the independent review found that their wrongful conviction would have been less likely today, Dalton said tunnel vision continues to be a leading cause of wrongful convictions across the country.
“We know that there’s all kinds of mistakes made and it’s natural that humans make mistakes. The best we can hope for though, is to get better at catching them and correcting them,” he added.
“It should not take 40 years for Mr. Mailman and Mr. Gillespie to have their convictions overturned. And because it took 40 years, it means that Mr. Leeman, the victim’s family, will never have justice for their murdered family member.”
Gillespie died in April 2024, just a few months after he was finally found not guilty, while Mailman is terminally ill."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.country94.ca/2025/03/10/innocence-canada-responds-to-wrongful-convictions-report/
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;
