Canada: Mullins-Johnson finally cleared

But a huge stain on forensic science remains. How many more pathologists like Charles Smith are out there?

An emotional and relieved William Mullins-Johnson said "I finally have my name back," after the Ontario Court of Appeal agreed he was wrongly convicted of murder in the death of his four-year-old niece in 1994. "It was worse than a scarlet letter," said Mullins-Johnson about the 12 years he spent in prison. A three-judge panel entered an acquittal yesterday after the Crown conceded his first-degree murder conviction was a miscarriage of justice.


Mullins-Johnson, 37, was found guilty in the 1993 death of his four-year-old niece Valin Johnson, whom he had been babysitting. He has been free on bail since September 2005, after the provincial coroner's office ordered a review of the findings of controversial pathologist Dr. Charles Smith in a number of criminal proceedings. Smith now lives in Saanich.

The doctor who conducted the original autopsy of the girl said there was no evidence of a recent sexual assault the night she died. Smith contradicted this and stated Valin had been sexually assaulted within 45 minutes of death. The review conducted by Dr. Michael Pollanen, chief forensic pathologist in Ontario, concluded that Smith made a number of errors. "There was no evidence of sexual injuries in this case," Pollanen testified yesterday.

He agreed with a suggestion by Crown attorney Michal Fairburn that Valin died "inexplicably" and was not a victim of a homicide. The girl's death is one of more than a dozen criminal cases since the early 1990s where Smith was found to have made errors and which will be the subject of an upcoming judicial inquiry.

Justice Dennis O'Connor told Mullins-Johnson yesterday that it was "regrettable" he had spent so long in custody because of "flawed" pathological evidence.

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