|
Jaime
Wheeler
| Denver
Crawford
| Wilf
Hathway | Martensville Prosecutors
still defending their malice | RCMP
agents committed crimes with immunity from prosecution
Section 465 of Criminal Code
regarding criminal conspiracy found here
Inquiry: Police tunnel
vision still a problem
N.L. Crown chastised in report into wrongful murder convictions,
By TARA BRAUTIGAM The Canadian
Press
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Newfoundland's
Crown attorney's office fostered a class of overzealous prosecutors
who too often accepted police investigations that were plagued
by "tunnel vision," an exhaustive inquiry into a trio
of wrongful murder convictions has concluded.
Former Supreme Court justice
Antonio Lamer, in a scathing 486-page report released Wednesday,
said the province's prosecutors must do a better job of assessing
evidence and allow for more time when preparing for complex trials.
"In sum, the Director
of Public Prosecutor's Office demonstrated a Crown culture that
accepted and supported the police tunnel vision," Lamer
wrote. "There was no evidence before me that this culture
has changed."
His report said prosecutors
were too eager to accept evidence from the Royal Newfoundland
Constabulary, a regional police force that Lamer described as
"a ship adrift."
"The (director of public
prosecutions) should strive to establish and maintain a Crown
culture that is sensitive to the opportunities to avoid injustice
as well as to obtain convictions," Lamer wrote.
In a bid to improve the province's
ailing justice system, Lamer made several dozen recommendations,
the most notable being a call for an independent review of the
Crown attorney's office.
The province's attorney general,
Tom Marshall, said the government intends to implement every
one of Lamer's recommendations, and it has already appointed
a retired Newfoundland judge to lead the review.
Marshall also took the opportunity
to apologize to Ronald Dalton and Randy Druken for the government's
role in murder cases that would later be exposed as miscarriages
of justice.
Gregory Parsons, the man at
the centre of the third case in question, has already received
a public apology from the government and $650,000 in compensation.
Dalton said Marshall's "half-hearted
apology" gave him cold comfort.
"You're never going to
restore my confidence in the justice system in this province
or any other," Dalton said.
Jerome Kennedy, defence lawyer
for Dalton and Parsons, welcomed the recommendations but questioned
whether the justice system would be overhauled in a timely manner.
"Crown cultures are deeply
seeded attitudes and beliefs, so you can put all the resources
and money you want into a department, but unless you change the
attitudes, you're not going to change the system itself,"
Kennedy said.
Lamer's wide-ranging inquiry
was launched in March 2003.
He looked into the notorious
cases that led to murder convictions for Parsons, Druken and
Dalton.
Dalton was arrested and charged
the day after his wife was found dead on Aug. 16, 1988. He was
convicted of strangling her the following year.
Although an appeal was filed
within weeks, the Newfoundland Court of Appeal did not hear the
case until almost nine years later.
Dalton, who had always insisted
his wife choked on cereal, had his conviction overturned and
he was acquitted after a retrial in June 2000.
Parsons was 19 in 1991 when
he found his mother dead in her St. John's home. She had been
stabbed to death. In 1994, a jury convicted him of second-degree
murder. He served six weeks before he was granted bail pending
an appeal.
Parsons was later exonerated
by DNA evidence and was formally acquitted in 1998. A former
friend was later sentenced for the crime.
|
 Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
Truth suppress'd, whether
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of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
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Another target
of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway
Our activism
contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the
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Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
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