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See also the Lamer
inquiry (Nfld)2003 sessions | 2004
sessions | Tom Sophonow
| Judge Baynton's decision
in Klassen/Kvello case Previous on Milgaard: background
| settlement | Joyce puts on the heat
| Steven Truscott still waiting
It is our
hope that this inquiry will provide a website with daily transcripts
as is being done with the Stonechild
Inquiry. Round-up of wrongful
convictions in Canada
David Milgaard
< < < | > > > 2005
coverage continues
 Inquiry
to cover costs for Joyce Milgaard
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, January 13, 2005
Joyce Milgaard will have her
expenses paid to attend the inquiry into the wrongful conviction
of her son, David, if she attends in his place, but the inquiry
will not fund a second lawyer to represent her at the inquiry,
which begins Monday in Saskatoon.
Inquiry commissioner Justice
Edward McCallum released his decisions Wednesday on the two requests
from Joyce Milgaard, whose 20-year fight to free her son from
prison and secure his exoneration led to the inquiry.
McCallum wrote that he would
not ordinarily have granted Joyce Milgaard, who is a party with
standing and funded counsel, more funding to cover travel, hotel
accommodations and $50 per day meal allowance to attend the hearings.
David Milgaard, the subject of the wrongful conviction, would
be "in a different class," and would be eligible for
such funding.
McCallum agreed to grant Joyce
funding if she stands in as a surrogate for David, who has said
he does not intend to come.
"This inquiry will follow
a much-travelled road through the investigation and prosecution
stages, but the reopening stage will take us into areas not covered
by the courts or by the RCMP inquiry -- areas concerning which
nobody would have greater knowledge than Joyce Milgaard,"
McCallum wrote.
McCallum refused a request
from Joyce's lawyer, James Lockyer, for the inquiry to provide
her with a stipend for attending.
Lockyer had also asked to have
his associate, Joanne McLean, funded to attend all of the hearing,
not just the days when he is absent, which is the normal arrangement
with alternate counsel for parties with standing.
In refusing to fund a second
lawyer to work with Lockyer, McCallum pointed out that the commission
lawyer is responsible for presenting all the evidence and he
has a team to help him. The process is not adversarial so lawyers
for parties with standing need only be concerned about the part
of the evidence which involves the clients' interests.
The commission will also meet
today to hear an application for standing and funding for Larry
Fisher, who was later convicted of the same crime for which Milgaard
was wrongfully convicted.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Milgaard inquiry to begin
in January 2005, 36 years after Saskatoon rape-murder
Canadian Press, November
18, 2004
SASKATOON (CP) - Thirty-six
years after the brutal sex slaying of a young Saskatoon nursing
assistant, a judicial inquiry will try to find out why an innocent
teenager ended up spending 23 years in jail for the crime.
Justice Edward MacCallum announced
Thursday that his inquiry into the wrongful conviction of David
Milgaard will begin on Jan. 17 at the Delta Bessborough Hotel
in Saskatoon.
The long-awaited inquiry had
to be delayed until Larry Fisher, the man later convicted as
the true culprit, had exhausted all his appeals. That happened
in August, when the Supreme Court refused to hear his case.
Milgaard was a 16-year-old
passing through Saskatoon when Gail Miller, 20, was killed. Her
bloody and partially clad body was found in an alley on Jan.
31, 1969. Her throat had been slashed, she had been stabbed 27
times and she had been raped.
Milgaard spent his entire young
adulthood behind bars before being exonerated by DNA evidence
in 1997 - the same evidence that convicted Fisher in 1999.
Semen stains were left on Miller's
dress and underwear and blood consistent with Fisher's DNA was
also found on Miller's glove.
The inquiry into Milgaard's
wrongful conviction is expected to last three months and cost
$2 million.
Ten parties have standing at
the inquiry, including Fisher, Milgaard and Joyce Milgaard, who
fought tirelessly for her son's exoneration.
The Saskatchewan government
has already awarded Milgaard $10 million for his wrongful conviction
- the biggest criminal compensation package in Canadian history.
© Canadian Press
2004
Justice too long delayed
The Leader-Post editorial,
August 28, 2004
In Brief: The way has been
cleared for Saskatchewan's long-awaited public inquiry into the
wrongful conviction of David Milgaard.
David Milgaard may finally
get some answers this fall as to why he was wrongly convicted
34 years ago.
The way has been cleared for
a long-awaited public inquiry into Milgaard's wrongful conviction
in 1970 for the murder of Gail Miller. The last obstacle was
removed Thursday when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that
it will not hear an appeal by Larry Fisher of his conviction
in Miller's death.
Two years ago, after rejecting
for years the idea of holding an inquiry into Milgaard's conviction,
the government of Saskatchewan finally agreed to hold an inquiry,
but only after Fisher had exhausted all of his appeals.
This spring it named Alberta
Court of Queen's Bench Justice Edward P. McCallum to head the
inquiry. The inquiry has a budget of $2 million but no time limit
has been set and McCallum will be free to hear as many witnesses
as he wishes. Because the inquiry has many of the same powers
as other judicial proceedings, witnesses can be compelled to
testify. The inquiry cannot assign criminal or civil wrongdoing
to individuals, but it is free to outline misconduct if that
is its finding.
Commission counsel Doug Hodgson
said a decision on dates will be made in the next few weeks,
but it will not be before November.
Milgaard's mother Joyce, says
Milgaard likely won't attend the hearings. "The government's
taken enough time out of his life. He doesn't need any more time
taken out."
That sounds bitter, but frankly
we can't blame Joyce Milgaard. For 23 years she led the fight
to free her son and saw her efforts blocked by stonewalling officials
who obdurately ignored the gathering mass of evidence that the
conviction was suspect. Indeed, the family was forced to pay
for the DNA analysis that finally exonerated Milgaard.
Joyce Milgaard has been one
of the driving forces behind the inquiry. She says although she
is disappointed the inquiry cannot ascribe blame, it's important
that the truth come out.
That may be asking too much.
After 35 years, memories will have become clouded. But we agree
with her sentiment. An old law aphorism says "justice delayed
is justice denied." David Milgaard has been denied justice
for too long.
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2004
Milgaard
inquiry terms set
Jason Warick, Saskatchewan
News Network, February 21, 2004
An Alberta judge has been named
to head the $2-million inquiry into the wrongful murder conviction
of former Saskatoon resident David Milgaard.
Milgaard's mother, Joyce, said
she was "very happy it's coming closer" to the start
of the inquiry she's been demanding for years.
Milgaard spent 23 years in
prison after his 1970 conviction for the murder of Saskatoon
nursing assistant Gail Miller. He was freed after the Supreme
Court of Canada ordered a new trial and the case was stayed.
DNA evidence cleared Milgaard
several years later, and the conviction of Larry Fisher for the
Miller murder followed in 1999. Milgaard received $10 million
and an apology from the provincial government for his wrongful
conviction.
The Saskatchewan government
announced last fall it would hold an inquiry after Fisher's appeals
ran out.
The budget for the inquiry
will be $2 million, but Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice
Edward P. McCallum will be free to hear as many witnesses as
he thinks necessary.
There will be no time limit
on the inquiry, Saskatchewan Justice Minister Frank Quennell
told reporters in Saskatoon Friday morning.
Witnesses can be forced to
testify, as the inquiry has many of the same powers as other
court proceedings.
"We are committed to finding
answers," Quennell said.
Ed Karst, a retired Saskatoon
police officer involved in the Milgaard investigation, said in
an interview that he has a clear conscience, and will wait to
see more details of the inquiry before commenting on any specifics.
"Everything was above
board, so I'm not concerned at all," Karst said.
"(But) knowing now what
I didn't know then, I suppose things could have been done a little
different. There's always afterthought, but I didn't know that
at the time."
The commission will not assign
criminal or civil responsibility, although McCallum is theoretically
free to recommend that another investigation take place, commission
counsel Doug Hodson said.
According to the terms of reference,
the commission can look into all aspects of the Miller murder
investigation and the criminal proceedings that led to Milgaard's
conviction.
It will also try to determine
whether the case should have been reopened at various points
when new information came to light over the years.
The hearings will likely be
held in Saskatoon. A final report will be delivered to the justice
minister, and then released to the public.
Both Quennell and Hodson said
piecing together information from a 35-year-old case could prove
difficult.
"We may face some challenges
with recollections," said Hodson, who attended the news
conference with Quennell at the Saskatoon cabinet office.
Hodson said the inquiry may
have to rely heavily on documentation. Some potential witnesses
may have died or forgotten details of the case.
Over the next few weeks, the
commission will finalize its procedures and infrastructure, Hodson
said.
He hopes to begin hearings
by April to determine which parties will have standing at the
inquiry. The inquiry website should be up and running within
a week.
Joyce Milgaard said she'll
be "eternally grateful" to the Miller family for urging
officials to re-examine the case. She said her heart goes out
to them, as the inquiry will bring back many unpleasant memories.
She's looking forward to testifying.
"I think it's important
that the truth comes out," she said in a telephone interview
from her busy Petersfield, Man. home, where she spent Friday
fielding calls and giving television interviews in her living
room.
Joyce Milgaard said she hopes
to discover what role justice officials played in the case. She
said she's disappointed the inquiry cannot assign liability or
blame.
Even though it was many years
ago, those who may have done wrong should be punished, she said.
David Milgaard was not available
for comment, as he is paragliding in Romania, she said. He then
travels to Morocco and Finland before coming back to Canada.
David Asper, who served as
Milgaard's co-counsel, has also been calling for the inquiry
since Milgaard was freed from prison in 1992.
"I wish the inquiry well.
On the other hand, it's 12 years since David got out of prison,"
said Asper, now executive vice-president of CanWest Global Communications
Corp.
Asper hopes the inquiry answers
three main questions: why did they arrest Milgaard for the murder
when most signs pointed to an unknown perpetrator, later found
to be Fisher; why did some witnesses change their stories at
various points of the proceedings; and, what did prosecutors
and police do when evidence began to surface questioning Milgaard's
guilt?
"The disclosure of the
bad guys in public may be a deterrent to others who might consider
doing the same kind of things," Asper said from his Winnipeg
office Friday afternoon.
© Copyright 2004 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Sask picks Alberta judge
to head up Milgaard wrongful conviction inquiry
TIM COOK, Canadian Press,
February 20, 2004
REGINA (CP) - More than 30
years after David Milgaard was sent to prison for a horrific
murder he did not commit, a public inquiry was formally launched
Friday to look at how the justice system failed him.
Alberta Justice Edward P. MacCallum
has been appointed to oversee the probe, said Saskatchewan Justice
Minister Frank Quennell. "We are committed to finding answers
to the many unanswered questions that surround this case,"
Quennell said from Saskatoon, where the case is centred.
"There are all kinds of
concerns about how the case was handled originally at trial and
subsequently, years later, when other information was provided,
perhaps, to police and the prosecutions branch of the Department
of Justice."
Milgaard spent 23 years in
jail for the 1969 murder of Gail Miller, a 20-year-old nursing
aide from Saskatoon.
In 1992, the Supreme Court
quashed Milgaard's conviction and in 1997 DNA evidence cleared
him of the crime.
That same evidence convicted
another man, Larry Fisher in 1999. He is currently serving a
life sentence.
The province held off on an
inquiry while Fisher's appeal was still before the courts. When
the appeal was lost last September, the province promised the
hearing.
Quennell admitted that the
inquiry may have some trouble getting to the truth because of
the number of years that have passed since Milgaard was convicted.
"There will be witnesses
that are no longer available," Quennell said. "I don't
know what the commission will be able to determine, I don't know
what it's findings will be, but we will have to wait and see."
He also admitted that many
of the findings may not be of any use to police or to the Justice
Department because policies have changed since then.
Even so, Quennell said, the
inquiry must go ahead to give closure to both the Milgaard and
Miller families.
Joyce Milgaard, David's mother
who worked tirelessly to free her son, was elated with the news.
"It's been over 30 years,"
Milgaard said in a telephone interview from Manitoba.
"I know it will be difficult,
but I have done difficult things before and I'll do this too."
David Milgaard was in Europe
and could not be reached for comment. Joyce Milgaard said she
was not sure he was aware the inquiry had been launched.
Saskatoon police Insp. Lorne
Constantinoff said the force supports the inquiry, though he
doesn't believe that any of the investigators who worked on Milgaard's
case are still affiliated with the department.
"We have nothing to hide,"
Constantinoff said. "We will certainly stand up and be reckoned
and allow our books to be as wide open as we possibly can."
Miller's murder stunned the
city of Saskatoon when it happened in 1969.
Her bloody and partially clad
body was found in a snowy alley on Jan. 31. Her throat had been
slashed and she had been stabbed 27 times.
Milgaard, then 16, had been
passing through Saskatoon at the time with three friends.
Some of the most damning evidence
at his trial came from Nichol John, one of the friends who was
with Milgaard on the night of the killing.
She told police she had witnessed
Milgaard stab Miller, but at trial, John testified that she could
not remember the incident. Still, her statement to police was
used to help convict Milgaard.
Court also heard testimony
from acquaintances who said Milgaard talked about killing Miller
when he saw a story about her murder on TV.
But when the DNA evidence from
semen found on Miller's clothing and blood found on her glove
was analysed years later it pointed to Fisher, not Milgaard.
The Saskatchewan government
eventually awarded Milgaard $10 million - the largest criminal
compensation package in Canadian history.
Milgaard is one in a long list
of Canadians to be wrongfully convicted in high-profile cases.
Last year, the Newfoundland
and Labrador government launched a sweeping inquiry into its
justice system after three wrongful convictions surfaced.
Greg Parsons, Ronald Dalton
and Randy Druken were all convicted of murder in separate incidents
only to have their convictions overturned following their trials.
© The Canadian Press 2004
Milgaard inquiry will
be open-ended
By OLIVER MOORE, Globe
and Mail, February 20, 2004
The public inquiry into David
Milgaard's wrongful conviction will be open-ended and will be
able to question whomever it wants, the Saskatchewan government
said Friday.
Saskatchewan announced late
last year that there would be an inquiry into the treatment of
Mr. Milgaard, who was convicted of murder and spent decades in
prison protesting his innocence. He was eventually freed and
another man jailed for the crime.
On Friday, Saskatchewan Justice
Minister Frank Quennell announced that Alberta judge Edward P.
MacCallum, appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench in 1983, will
head up the inquiry. He will be assisted by commission counsel
Douglas Hodson of Saskatoon.
"Under the terms of reference,
the commission of inquiry will have the responsibility to inquire
into and report on any and all aspects of the conduct of the
investigation into the death of Gail Miller and the subsequent
criminal proceedings resulting in the wrongful conviction of
Mr. Milgaard, on the charge that he murdered Miss Miller,"
he told reporters in Saskatoon.
"The commission of inquiry
will also have the responsibility to seek to determine whether
the investigation should have been reopened based on information
subsequently received by the police and the Department of Justice."
He said that the purpose of
the inquiry was not "to determine civil or criminal liability"
but rather to reveal facts that may not have been uncovered in
previous trials "because they weren't directly relevant."
Mr. Quennell said that the
inquiry has no timeline and will get enough funding to be thorough,
although he conceded that it may be difficult to unravel events
a generation after the fact.
"I expect there'll be
some difficulties, there'll be witnesses who are no longer available,"
he said. "[But] there is an extensive court record and police
record ... there's considerable amount of documentation."
Mr. Milgaard was convicted
in 1970 in the stabbing or nursing aide Gail Miller. Only after
23 years behind bars was he exonerated by DNA evidence. The Saskatchewan
government awarded him $10-million and promised to hold a public
inquiry once the man convicted in his place, Larry Fisher, had
exhausted his avenues of appeal.
The DNA evidence that cleared
Mr. Milgaard was enough to damn Mr. Fisher. An RCMP forensic
analyst said the odds were 950 trillion to one that semen stains
on the victim's clothing had not come from Mr. Fisher.
Joyce Milgaard knocks
inquiry
Toronto Star, PETER EDWARDS
AND TRACEY TYLER, February 21, 2004
The long-awaited inquiry into
the wrongful conviction of David Milgaard left his mother Joyce
underwhelmed.
"There's lots missing,"
Joyce Milgaard said by telephone yesterday after the Saskatchewan
government announced it will hold an open-ended investigation
into why David Milgaard spent almost 23 years behind bars for
a murder he did not commit. "The biggest thing is there's
no accountability," she said from her home in Manitoba.
David was 17 when he was convicted
for the 1969 rape and murder of Gail Miller, a 20-year-old from
Saskatoon. He was freed in 1993 and exonerated in 1997 as a result
of DNA testing.
In 1999, the Saskatchewan government
awarded Milgaard $10 million for his wrongful conviction.
Larry Fisher was convicted
of the murder in 1999.
No time frame was announced
for the inquiry, but Saskatchewan Justice Minister Frank Quennell
said he hopes it will begin this year.
Quennell told reporters in
Saskatoon yesterday that the purpose of the inquiry was not "to
determine civil or criminal liability."
David Milgaard was unavailable
for comment yesterday.
TORONTO STAR STAFF
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
