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A living scrapbook of injustices in progress and the tools to set them right Restoring reputations to the defamed -- Telling the truth about the undefamable October 21, 2003 |
| Most of the wrongfully convicted are walking wounded of a dirty, greedy and unfair war on the public -- others are casualties. The war is conducted by those within the system who have a different agenda from the stated claims of the system. For one reason or another, police conduct improper investigations, prosecutors take tainted evidence to court and judges fail to protect the rights of the accused. The reasons do not really matter; the outcome is always malicious. | |
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Shannon Murrin
Mindy Tran's raped and murdered remains were found down by the river in Kelowna, B. C. three weeks after her disappearance. The pressure was on the RCMP to find her murderer. Murrin fit the profile, even though he had a solid alibi and had been cleared on the initial investigation, before he body was found. So Sgt. Gary Tidsbury put the word out to some local tough guys that Murrin had done it. Since they faced charges themselves, it was an offer they could not refuse. He defamed Murrin to these thugs and to the press. Posted May 10, 2002: : What really happened by juror Kathy MacDonald 1 | 2 | 3 | Tidsbury: His actions whitewashed by mounties | 4 | 5 | Tidsbury: the media's soft ride for criminal officer |
But Murrin was the wrong guy and he lived to ID his attackers. One went to jail. Did Tidsbury care? Not really. He put Murrin behind bars for 5 years. It furthered his career, even though the target turned out to be innocent. Fifth estate covered this story so the public is somewhat familiar with it. However, we know that getting the story out is only the first step towards obtaining justice. Often we think that when we haven't heard anything more about a case for a few years that justice has finally been done. After all, don't we live in a democracy? Sophonow was cleared by proven eyewitness misidentification. The recommendations of Judge Peter Cory's inquiry into what went wrong in his case pointed to the withholding of exculpatory disclosure and putting strict limitations on the ways in which testimony from jailhouse informants is used.
Yes, we live in a democracy but it is one where the powerful have many secrets which the keep from the public claiming it is not in the public interest to know certain things. Once we have posted a story, injusticebusters pledge to keep it on the internet until justice has been done and afterwards so those interested in expanding authentic justice can study the mistakes of the past.
The likes of Tidsbury usually have more than one case of wrongfully charging, seting up innocents, or generally abusing their offices. While occasionally a wrongfully convicted person is publicly exonerated and even apologized to, the system cannot yet seem to go so far as to hold bad cops totally accountable for what they do. A proper accounting would be firing, obstruction of justice charges, jail time and a loss of promotions or any other privileges gained since the time of their crimes. Murrin is back in Newfoundland working on a book.
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Truth can never
be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. Truth suppress'd, whether by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com Who
we are:
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.
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 updatedIndex to Saskatoon Police stories This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.
individual injustice stories | Index to Saskatoon Police stories |
The
Murder of Mindy Tran
Just an evening's entertainment
in a boring town -- find a guy to beat up for the RCMP.
Doug Martin had already
claimed to have heard confessions from Thomas Sophonow and eight
or nine other convicted persons. The fifth estate called their
show on him "Father Confessor."
Manitoba
Justice Minister Gordon Mackintosh legislated some limitations
on the use of snitches. Nonetheless, Doug Martin has not been
charged with perjury
We also pay tribute to those whose
lives have been irrevocabably changed by a system which is not
only imperfect, but sometimes harbours malicious individuals
who abuse their power.
B.C. lawyer Peter Wilson joins the
growing ranks of lawyers experienced in successfully fighting
against corruption in the justice system.
