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Commission
of Inquiry Into the Wrongful Conviction of David Milgaard:
(Page 7)
Honourable Mr. Justice Edward
P. MacCallum, Commissioner
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background (also see links on sidebar) Sask
to give inquiry another $700,000
Paperless database for
Milgaard inquiry massive undertaking
Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix,
Monday, April 04, 2005
A stampede of documents that
threatened to overrun the Milgaard inquiry was wrangled into
a massive computer data system that corralled 300,000 pages into
an orderly, paperless reference tool.
Commission counsel Doug Hodson
and executive director Candace Congram saw that an electronic
system was needed as soon as parties to the inquiry began submitting
their documents, Congram said.
The first of 12 parties to
deliver its documents sent 17 file boxes crammed with police
reports, police statements, letters, memos, transcripts, newspaper
clippings, maps and drawings. Another warned they would be sending
50 boxes.
The material was collected
over 35 years, since the 1969 murder of Saskatoon nursing assistant
Gail Miller and the wrongful conviction of David Milgaard. He
spent 23 years in prison before being released in 1992. DNA evidence
was used to convict serial rapist Larry Fisher of the crime in
1999.
The commission of inquiry is
looking into the original murder investigation, the prosecution
of Milgaard and the actions taken by justice officials as new
information became available over the years. The commission was
appointed in February 2004.
After all the documents were
collected, the commission found it would need 500 binders to
house one complete set.
Providing one set to each of
the 12 parties with standing, plus one for commission counsel
and one for the commissioner would have required 7,000 binders.
A few acres of forest would have to be cut down and mushed into
paper just to print the paper needed to fill them.
"When we realized how
many documents we had . . . we knew we had to set up a database
to handle it," Congram said.
Building the elaborate, multi-layer
database began with scanning every scrap of paper. Because security
was a priority, the commission refused to send the documents
to a scanning service.
"We needed to find a way
to do it in-house. We ended up bringing in a four-person scanning
team who came in with scanners and set up and just ran. They
scanned 18 hours a day."
Before that could happen, however,
each sheet of paper needed an identification number that would
form the basis of the coding system.
As the information managers
envisioned sophisticated new ways to code the pages and enable
many different ways of searching through them, they found there
was no way to avoid the low-tech, manual job of using a rubber
stamp and ink pad to number each of the 300,000 pages.
"It was a summer student,
bless him. Without him we wouldn't have got through. The database
would be nothing," Congram said.
Others working in the office
sometimes spelled him off, hoping to reduce his risk of carpal
tunnel syndrome, she said.
Scanning and coding lasted
from May through October as lawyers for the parties waited for
access.
"We had a day shift and
a night shift and working through the weekend because it was
a numbers game. You have so many documents and you can only push
so many through per day on a scanner and you can only get so
many through coding in a day," Congram said.
Each document had to be coded
to enable searches. Because documents came in so many different
formats, coders had to identify numerous features about each
one so that specific searches would be sure to produce every
document requested.
Commission staff who were accustomed
to managing information for trials found they had to do some
things differently because the database had to serve the needs
of all the parties with standing, not just one defence or prosecutorial
team.
While it was tempting to scan
the duplicates provided by different parties just once, that
shortcut was avoided because the commission had to be able to
say who had what information and when they had it, Congram explained.
Now, a party can enter a search
of a witness name and every document that even mentions that
person can be called up.
The database was placed on
a secured site on the Internet and parties were given passwords.
It can be updated at any time and parties can be notified by
a quick e-mail alert, making it much more efficient than paper
or even a 10-CD ROM set, which would have required updates to
be couriered to each party.
Lawyer Aaron Fox, who has represented
parties at Milgaard and at the recent, paper-based Stonechild
inquiry, said the electronic database is more cost-effective
for the commission because it saves lawyers time. As well, the
quicker access to information has freed him up to spend more
time thinking about the real issues and, hopefully, results in
better representation for the client.
A different, public website
was also created for the commission, where documents are posted
after they have been entered as evidence before the commissioner.
Congram estimates creation of the database cost $450,000.
Other technology was needed
to present the documents at the hearings. Inland Audio was contracted
to provide flat screen monitors for each party with standing
and special touch-screen monitors for the witness and the podium
used by lawyers asking questions. There's also a large screen
for other observers in the room.
The presentation system allows
the examining lawyer to request a document, which then instantly
appears on all of the monitors in the room. The lawyer and witness
can touch their monitors to point out a paragraph that can then
be enlarged and scrolled through. The touch screens can also
be used to create lines or arrows on maps.
While lawyers at the Gomery
inquiry in Montreal cart towers of binders to the hearing room
each day and wait for witnesses to find documents, lawyers for
parties at the Milgaard inquiry can glance at their monitors
or, using the Internet access provided them, use their own laptop
computers to do preparation work while the hearings are in process.
Congram expects the commission
to pay about $50,000 for the presentation system over the 108
scheduled days of hearings.
Maintaining the database and
the document presentation system takes another $150,000 out of
the commission's $4.7 million budget. The technology bill will
total about $650,000. The paper system would have cost about
$450,000 before update additions.
The "great immeasurable,"
Congram said, is the time saving for lawyers, most of whom are
billing $150 to $200 per hour.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
2005
Wilson recalls police
interrogation
Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix,
April 05, 2005
A man who admits he was "a
mess" from drug use in 1969 and 1970, when he lied and implicated
David Milgaard in a murder he didn't commit, tried on Monday
to remember what he meant 15 years ago when he was being questioned
about events 21 years before that.
Ron Wilson tried, but sometimes
failed, to follow confusing lines of logic in questions about
what he knew of what other witnesses were saying about Milgaard
during the 1969 investigation into the murder of Gail Miller
and at Milgaard's 1970 trial for the crime.
Some of the questions were
about what Wilson now thinks he knew in 1969, some were about
what he thought in 1990 that he knew in 1969, some were about
the differences in what he knew in 1969 and 1970, some were about
what he thought about those differences in June 1990, when he
recanted, and some were about what he was thinking a month later,
in July 1990.
Wilson seldom said he couldn't
remember what he knew or thought at different times in the distant
past as commission counsel Doug Hodson referred to Wilson's various
statements and sworn testimonies showing he sometimes gave contradictory
answers.
Wilson, 53, was 17 when he,
Milgaard and Nichol John came through Saskatoon on Jan. 31, 1969,
to pick up Milgaard's friend, Albert Cadrain, on their way to
Calgary. All four teens originally said there was nothing unusual
about the morning but Milgaard's friends eventually all changed
their stories. Cadrain said he saw blood on Milgaard's clothing,
John said she saw the stabbing and Wilson said Milgaard confessed
to him.
Milgaard was convicted in 1970
and sentenced to life in prison. In 1990, Wilson recanted and
Milgaard was released two years later, after the case was reviewed
by the Supreme Court. DNA evidence was used to clear Milgaard
in 1997 and to convict serial rapist Larry Fisher of the crime
in 1999.
The commission of inquiry,
which began in January, is looking into the original investigation,
the prosecution of Milgaard and actions of justice officials
in subsequent years as new information became known.
Wilson has said he was manipulated
by police and the Crown prosecutor into giving evidence against
Milgaard.
Wilson, who was using LSD,
speed and cannabis almost every day, even while in jail, said
he gave police the information they wanted so he could go home
and get stoned.
He described a subtle process
of intimidation and suggestion that he said led him to concoct
a story that satisfied the police and took police focus off him
as a suspect.
He doesn't remember being overtly
bullied by the police, who he remembers as usually being friendly.
Instead, the police gave him details about the murder that he
wouldn't have known otherwise and suggested repeatedly that his
copious drug use must have caused him to blank out memories about
the day of the murder. The suggestions were presented as attempts
to help him remember the truth, he said Monday.
Wilson said he eventually began
to believe the police and adopted information they had given
him.
While Wilson doesn't remember
being forced to lie, he understood that police made it clear
to him that as long as the crime was not attached to Milgaard,
Wilson remained a suspect in the murder.
He recounted an odd incident,
in which jail officials moved him from regular cells, where he
was serving a sentence for conspiracy to traffic LSD, to the
less desirable remand unit because they understood he was being
held on suspicion of murder.
Wilson said he called Saskatoon
police and they promised to clear up the mixup, but there was
no change, and Wilson was housed in the less desirable section
in the weeks preceding his testimony at Milgaard's preliminary
hearing.
"It really shook me up,"
he said.
He said his drug use made him
an unreliable witness and he was surprised that his testimony
was considered credible enough to cause Milgaard to be committed
to stand trial. He has said he thought John's testimony must
have been more damning than his. He was surprised to learn later
that John refused to repeat her claim of having seen Milgaard
stab Miller.
Wilson said he thinks he would
have broken down and admitted the lie at the trial if he had
been questioned more vigorously by the defence.
Wilson returns to the stand
today. © The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Inquiry revisits confusing
testimony
Betty Ann Adam,The StarPhoenix,
April 06, 2005
The same confusion that has
plagued Ron Wilson at the Milgaard inquiry got him into hot water
when he was called to testify at the Supreme Court of Canada
in 1992.
Wilson was cited for contempt
after he contradicted himself following a stern warning by then-Chief
Justice Antonio Lamer, who said Wilson had been "lying through
his teeth the whole time" while testifying in 1992.
Wilson answered questions about
the Supreme Court testimony Tuesday at the Milgaard inquiry,
where commission counsel Doug Hodson referred to transcripts
from the hearing.
Wilson had been called to Ottawa
to answer questions about his 1990 recantation of his damning
1970 testimony against David Milgaard, which had helped convict
Milgaard of the 1969 rape and murder of 21-year-old Gail Miller.
In 1997, DNA proved Milgaard's innocence.
During the 1992 Supreme Court
review of Milgaard's conviction, Wilson contradicted himself
on three important points.
- He first said Milgaard had
a bone-handle hunting knife before they arrived in Saskatoon
the morning of Gail Miller's murder. Then, under questioning
by Milgaard's lawyer, Hersh Wolsh, Wilson said he didn't see
a hunting knife.
- He first said his car got
stuck at a T-intersection after Milgaard asked a woman for directions
and that he and Milgaard left the car, walking in opposite directions,
to seek help. Wilson said he walked several blocks and then came
back, which took him away from the car for about 10 or 15 minutes.
He had previously said he was gone from the car only two minutes.
Later, he agreed with Wolsh
that it didn't make sense for Milgaard to rob and stab a woman
knowing that the car he would need to get away in was stuck and
couldn't be moved without help. When Wolsh pointed out that Milgaard
said they never did get stuck near a T-intersection, Wilson agreed
that was probably right.
- Wilson told the first lawyer
who questioned him that Nichol John, the girl travelling with
him and Milgaard, found a makeup compact in the glove compartment
after the murder and that Milgaard took it from her and threw
it out the window. Wilson later agreed with Wolsh that there
was no compact.
There were also numerous contradictions
about whether he believed the lies he was telling at the time
of the 1970 trial.
Wilson later explained to the
high court that he had become confused during questioning. He
didn't really agree with Wolsh but he thought he and Wolsh were
on the same side and that Wolsh would be kind to him. He said
he agreed with questions that seemed to require agreement.
When Lamer asked Wilson: "You
were following Wolsh's lead everywhere he went?" Wilson
agreed he had.
The contradictions were also
a result of trying to read transcripts, listen to questions,
analyze the differences he was being asked to compare and answer
the question, all at the same time, he said at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court directed
the minister of justice to quash the conviction and order a new
trial. The province stayed the charge and said it would not order
a new trial. Milgaard was released April 16, 1992, two days after
the Supreme Court ruling. © The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
2005
- Statements never challenged:
Wilson:
- Says lie invented to
please police
Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix,
April 7, 2005
How could a car be stuck in
the middle of a main thoroughfare intersection for 15 minutes
on a weekday morning without anybody noticing it?
Ron Wilson told the Milgaard
inquiry Wednesday that nobody ever challenged him on the implausible
lie he invented to satisfy the police in 1969 when they were
trying to build a case against David Milgaard for the murder
of Gail Miller.
It was while the car was stuck
there that Milgaard was supposed to have raped and murdered Miller.
Neither police, Crown prosecutor
T.D.R. Caldwell nor Milgaard's defence lawyer, Calvin Tallis,
used a map of the area to demonstrate that, if Wilson's description
were true, his car would have been stuck in the middle of 20th
Street at Avenue O or Avenue N at 6:45 a.m., Wilson acknowledged
during cross-examination by Milgaard's lawyer, Hersh Wolsh.
In 1969 the area was a bustling
commercial and residential area. Twentieth Street was a main
transit route with buses travelling through at 15-minute intervals.
Numerous witnesses had told
police and Milgaard's trial that they were walking in the area,
waiting for a bus, fixing a car and driving through the area.
None of those people said they
saw Wilson's car stuck on ice and blocking traffic.
Police at the time advertised
a request that anyone who had seen the car come forward. No one
did.
The incongruity was never drawn
to the attention of the jury at Milgaard's trial.
Wilson, who had maintained
for two months that Milgaard was never separated from him long
enough to commit a murder, eventually told police and the court
that they got stuck on ice and that he and Milgaard were separated
for 15 minutes after they left in opposite directions to seek
help.
Wilson's false testimony included
that new opportunity for Milgaard to commit murder, Milgaard
being in possession of the murder weapon -- a maroon-handled
paring knife -- and a motive for the killing, which was that
Milgaard had planned to get money by purse-snatching.
The new elements of Wilson's
damning statement were listed in a police document, shown at
the inquiry, that was made before Wilson gave the statement.
The inquiry has heard that
Nichol John claimed the car was stuck in the alley behind Westwood
Funeral Home. She claimed to have been in the car watching as
Milgaard grabbed Miller's purse and stabbed her.
That inconsistency also was
ignored at the trial.
Twenty years after Milgaard
was convicted of the murder, Wilson recanted, saying police manipulated
him into lying through suggestions and implied threats that he
might be blamed if Milgaard were not.
At the time, Wilson was a 17-year-old
drug user and petty criminal who was already serving his second
jail sentence.
Wilson agreed with Wolsh that,
while justice officials never challenged his implausible story,
they challenged his recantation when Milgaard used it to try
to have his case reopened in 1991.
Based on their advice, former
federal justice minister, Kim Campbell, who later became prime
minister, turned down Milgaard's request to have his case reviewed
by the Supreme Court of Canada. Campbell later changed her mind.
The Supreme Court heard the
case in 1992 and quashed the conviction. Milgaard was released
two days later, after 23 years in prison. DNA evidence proved
his innocence in 1997 and was used to convict serial rapist,
Larry Fisher in 1999.
The inquiry is looking into
the 1969 investigation, Milgaard's prosecution and what actions
justice officials took in the years that followed, as new information
that could have helped free Milgaard came to light.
The inquiry also heard on Wednesday
about a police report about six weeks after the murder, in which
the writer describes the similarity in method between the Miller
rape and two others which had occurred in the neighbourhood within
recent months. The officer wrote that he had not overlooked the
possibility the same person could have committed all of the crimes.
Fisher was eventually convicted
of those sexual assaults.
Wolsh and Joyce Milgaard's
lawyer, Joanne McLean, said on numerous occasions police talked
to Wilson when they could have suggested to him the details that
he later included in his damning statement.
McLean continues cross examining
Wilson today.
Transcripts of the hearings
and documents referred to are available on the commission's website
at www.milgaardinquiry.ca.
RCMP sought proof Wilson
paid to recant
Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix
April 8, 2005
RCMP who were asked to investigate
Joyce Milgaard's allegations of wrongdoing and a coverup by Saskatoon
police and Saskatchewan Justice officials were more interested
in finding out if Joyce had paid Ron Wilson to recant than in
finding out if her allegations were true, her lawyer said Thursday.
The RCMP delved into 10 years
of Wilson's personal banking history in 1993 to see if they could
find a large cash deposit that might show he had taken money
to recant evidence against David Milgaard, lawyer Joanne McLean
showed while she cross-examined Wilson at the commission of inquiry
into Milgaard's wrongful 1970 conviction.
RCMP obtained Wilson's and
his wife's social insurance numbers, checked their banking activity,
their credit card accounts, contacted a credit rating agency,
looked into government records and even considered obtaining
a search warrant to dig deeper into bank accounts, during the
four-month search, documents showed.
Wilson's recantation, before
the Supreme Court of Canada in 1992, had contributed to the quashing
of Milgaard's conviction for murder and his release from prison
after 23 years.
Wilson told the Supreme Court
he was manipulated into implicating Milgaard in the murder when
Wilson was a drug-using, 17-year-old petty criminal. They fed
him information about the crime and made suggestions, which he
adopted, he said.
He understood that police might
try to blame him for the murder if they couldn't blame it on
Milgaard, the inquiry has heard.
The 1993 RCMP investigators
put a "sinister interpretation" on Joyce Milgaard's
1981 offer of a $10,000 reward to anyone who could help exonerate
David, McLean said.
Joyce Milgaard's efforts to
get her innocent son out of prison made her a target of accusations
of wrongdoing herself, McLean said.
The 1993 RCMP investigators
did not ask Wilson how inconsistencies between his and Nichol
John's false statements came to be left out of trial testimony,
McLean noted.
She also referred to notes
by former Crown prosecutor T.D.R. Caldwell which show he planned
to keep part of Wilson's statement out of Milgaard's 1970 trial.
Wilson said he couldn't remember being told not to mention certain
points from his damning statement.
McLean also presented a document
which showed that four months after Milgaard was released, the
RCMP were still working on a theory, referred to as the Milgaard,
Wilson, John car theory.
That car theory suggested Milgaard
committed the rape in the back seat of Wilson's car while Wilson
and John were in the front seat going through her purse or perhaps
were holding Miller while Milgaard raped her, McLean said, referring
to the document.
The government of Saskatchewan
still considered Milgaard and Wilson suspects in the murder as
late as 1997, McLean showed, referring to a government document
prepared just prior to the results of DNA testing. The document
outlined the possible responses by the justice minister if the
DNA showed Milgaard or Wilson had sexually assaulted Miller before
murdering her on Jan. 31, 1969.
The DNA matched that of serial
rapist Larry Fisher, who was convicted of the crime in 1999.
"You were cleared in 1997,
just as David was," McLean said.
Wilson said he had no idea
officials had considered him a suspect for so long.
Authorities were more inclined
to accept Wilson's lies when he was a young criminal than to
accept his truth when he was a responsible, law-abiding adult,
he said.
"You got nothing but grief
from authorities since you recanted," McLean said, to which
Wilson agreed.
"You had a conscience
and you exercised it. . . . Thank you for doing that," McLean
said.
On Wednesday, David Milgaard's
lawyer, Hersh Wolsh, called Wilson's recantation "courageous."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
