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 January
25, 2005: The Federal government released the
first national examination of the reasons for so many wrongful
convictions in Canada.
This should be required reading for every prosecutor, cop and
criminal defence lawyer in the country. News reports
Marty
Tenkleff
John
Chalmers' trial and conviction
Imagine
it was you who survived this crash . . .
- One day, you are
a functioning member of the community.
- Then you have an
accident which almost kills you.
- A year and a half
later, after many surgeries, avoiding prescription painkillers
for fear of becoming addicted, and barely managing your pain,
the police take you in and hold you for two days to question
you about events which happened almost two decades ago.
- The case was closed.
Your solid alibi witness has died.
- They say you killed
your wife. You deny this. You loved her and were devastated when
she was killed. You blame yourself because you didn't stop her
from riding that horse. . .
- You cooperate fully
with the police. You trust officer Murray. You know that concussion
may have affected your memory so you accept the cops' suggestions
may be possible.
- They finally let
you go and take what you have said to them and cobble it together
into what they say is a "confession."
- It is not a confession
but phrases taken out of context, skillfully edited videotape.
That is
what happened to John Chalmers.
  John Chalmers was a very happy man
the day of his wedding.
People don't realize how much
John loved Janie and hated it when he had to hear negative things
about her. He had heard the rumours that she was "playing
around" and he stood up for her.
She was involved in the whole
family and when she passed away, they all felt it, mainly John.
According to a family member,
he sat at his own Mother and Father's table crying and kept repeating,
" I tried to save her Mom, but when I turned her over, she
was blue Mom, SHE WAS BLUE! I tried to help her, but I couldn't
do anything."
Seventeen years after Janie's
death, and after a full investigation had been done and the file
was closed, after he had remarried and had a family, John Chalmers
was involved in the accident shown above.
He was nowhere close to full
recovery when one of the rookie officers on the original file
decided to literally dig Jane Chalmers up and go after John Chalmers
for murder. They spoke to local
media asking for people to come forward.
The interrogation of John Chalmers
broke every rule in the book of any properly trained policeman
interested in serving the cause of justice. Unfortunately it
conformed exactly to the kinds of methods which are used by police
who seek to get a "confession" at any cost to pass
on to a prossecutor who is willing to do anything it takes to
get a conviction. Put all this together with an expert in junk
science who is prepared to make claims which no honest scientist
would ever make. Then put the case before a judge who would seem
to have been asleep during important partss of the trial, wwaking
up only to deny the defence the opportunity to put before the
court evidence which would clearly show this was an over-zealous
prosecution which was pursued for a purpose other than that of
furthering the administration of justice.
  In
Saskatchewan, we have recently received a Queen's Bench decision
which describes as malicious the taking to trial of any case
which either the police or the Crown does not have reasonable
and probable cause to pursue.
The only cause for the Chalmers
prosecution was the police and crown together saw an opportunity
to take advantage of a vulnerable man who was in circumstances
ripe for the plucking.
This was a malicious prosecution.
Whether Janie Chalmers was
killed by a horse or was, indeed murdered with a blunt object
and then moved to the ditch where she was found, her husband,
John, was not responsible.
There was nothing which happened
during the seventeen years between the closing of the book on
the case and its re-opening 17 years later which would make him
into a suspect.
Except for the car accident.
And the fact that John Chalmers
had fallen on very hard times.
He became a vulnerable man.
And that is the only reason he is now in prison, separated from
his wife and children, serving a life sentence without parole
for fourteen years.
And the creativity and ingenuity
of prosecutor Diane Foster who slipped through a win when she
didn't really have a case.
John
Chalmers' trial and conviction
Publisher Sheila
Steele
Got something
to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!
I created this
blog for people to share their stories. I receive many e-mails
with serious stories which I don't have time to check properly
and so they sometimes fall by the wayside. I hope people will
take their stories to this blog.
For now, I
am using it to post and blog photos taken by Richard and Kari
Klassen and Angela Geworsky during the summer of 2003.
Our activism
contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the
civil trial.
Please participate
by posting your own photos and links of activism in your community.
Index
to the stories on this website
This is not
regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story
and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at
the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated
Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
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