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Cotler
orders new trial for Driskell
 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
James Driskell:> > > | Justice
Minister Mackintosh
gets involved | Premier gets involved | More layers of
the criminal prosecutorial cover-up are revealed
- Doer pledges 'a day
of reckoning'
- Justice officials may
face inquiry
By Dan Lett, December 3rd,
2003
PREMIER Gary Doer is promising
to hold justice officials to account for any mistakes made in
the James Driskell murder case.
"There is going to be
a day of reckoning," Doer vowed in an interview yesterday.
"Not only for the accused, but also for the people in the
justice system. I have some serious questions about what happened
here and things cannot improve if there is no accountability.
"There will be accountability
here."
Doer said he expects an independent
public inquiry will be needed to hold the system accountable
for its mistakes.
The premier was on the hot
seat in the legislature again yesterday for his government's
response to new evidence in the Driskell case.
The opposition attacked the
government for sitting on growing evidence of a miscarriage of
justice, and doing nothing about it.
Tory Leader Stuart Murray said
he welcomed Doer's hint an independent inquiry will be held,
but would like a firmer commitment from the premier about exactly
when and how the case will be reviewed.
"If he's committed to
a public inquiry, he should call it today," said Murray.
For more than a year, Manitoba
Justice denied there was enough new evidence to warrant a new
trial for Driskell.
However on Monday, after a
Court of Queen's Bench decision releasing Driskell on bail, Justice
Minister Gord Mackintosh reversed his position and asked the
federal government to send the case back to a Manitoba court
for review as soon as possible.
Doer said he wants to make
sure the issue of Driskell's guilt or innocence is settled once
and for all.
Once that issue is addressed,
he said it's almost inevitable that an inquiry will be needed
to examine the role of police and prosecutors who, it has been
revealed, withheld evidence that could have won Driskell a new
trial.
James Lockyer, a Toronto lawyer
and director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted,
said he was thrilled with Doer's comments, which indicate that
Manitoba is taking the lead among all provinces in addressing
wrongful convictions head on.
"I think this shows tremendous
commitment on the part of the Manitoba government to the cause
of the wrongly convicted," Lockyer said.
Driskell was convicted in June
1991 of killing his friend, Perry Dean Harder. Convicted without
a confession, a witness or a murder weapon, Driskell has always
maintained his innocence.
New evidence uncovered in his
case showed key witnesses were paid for their testimony and given
immunity from prosecution for other crimes, but that none of
these details were ever presented to the jury. The Winnipeg Police
Service also possessed new evidence never revealed to a jury
or Driskell's lawyers, including proof a key witness tried to
recant after the trial.
Miscarriage
of justice
The federal government has
launched a full investigation of Driskell's case on the basis
that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred. Driskell was released
on bail last week after Justice John Scurfield of Manitoba's
Court of Queen's Bench determined that the new evidence was so
compelling it would be unconstitutional to allow him to remain
behind bars.
Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard
said the fact prosecutors in Driskell's case were also involved
in allegations of misconduct in the Thomas Sophonow case should
be reason enough to prepare for a judicial inquiry.
"It's quite clear that
there are serious concerns about the systemic problems which
have been acknowledged in other cases," said Gerrard. "If
Manitobans' faith in the justice system is to be restored, it
will have to be through a public inquiry."
In raising the model of the
Sophonow inquiry, Doer is committing himself to an ambitious
effort and dredging up some very painful issues for Manitoba
Justice.
It took former Supreme Court
Justice Peter Cory nearly nine months and more than $3 million
to investigate police and prosecutors involved in the Sophonow
debacle. In the end, Sophonow was awarded $2.3 million in compensation.
The Sophonow inquiry also raised
significant questions about senior members of the provincial
Justice department who were also deeply involved in the Driskell
prosecution.
Three members of Manitoba Justice
who prosecuted Sophonow in the 1980s -- George Dangerfield, Stu
Whitley and Greg Lawlor -- were also involved in the Driskell
case. The trio of prosecutors were all found to have failed in
their obligations to disclose key evidence to Sophonow's lawyers,
which contributed to his wrongful conviction.
Failure to
disclose
All three were involved in
the Driskell case and have become the subject of new allegations
of failure to disclose evidence.
The three prosecutors, along
with former director of prosecutions Bruce Miller -- now a provincial
court judge -- were given evidence prior to Driskell's appeal
indicating Winnipeg police offered a key witness a secret immunity
deal in a Saskatchewan arson, and that the witness committed
perjury while testifying against Driskell.
Meanwhile, Driskell himself
is relaxing and trying to enjoy his first few days of freedom.
A spokesman for Driskell said he has been inundated with requests
for media interviews, and has been forced to refuse many just
to rest from his ordeal last week.
The media attention also forced
Driskell to postpone a bit of housekeeping -- the recovery of
his personal belongings from Rockwood Institution, the minimum-security
annex located beside Stony Mountain Penitentiary. Driskell said
in an earlier interview he did not take any personal items with
him when he went to court last Friday for his bail hearing.
The last week has also been
difficult for the family of Perry Harder. Tanis Harder, Perry's
sister, said in an interview from British Columbia she is not
making any public pronouncements on Driskell's case while more
work is done to assess his claims of innocence.
Harder said she was shocked
to hear Driskell had been released, but would like to read the
judge's decision before commenting any further.
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