Canada: A VERY late appeal

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has asked the New Brunswick Court of Appeal to review a dying man's 1975 murder conviction because it may well constitute a wrongful conviction. The case — the first apparent wrongful conviction to take place in New Brunswick — could result in the province's Court of Appeal overturning Erin Walsh's non-capital murder conviction within days or weeks. New Brunswick Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau acted quickly Friday, convening a hearing during which the Crown conceded that a miscarriage of justice took place in the Walsh case...

Should Mr. Walsh end up being fully exonerated in the shooting of Melvin "Chi Chi" Peters, he will have spent longer in prison than any previous victim of a wrongful conviction. Factoring in a series of parole revocations which added years to his sentence, the father of five spent more than 25 years behind bars.

Defence counsel Phil Campbell said in an interview that his initial reluctance to become involved in the case became an obsession when he saw the undisclosed evidence — which Mr. Walsh obtained from the provincial archives in 2003. "Now, with Erin dying and the case back before the court, it still feels like we are staggering to the finish line and desperately hoping we get there before he drops," he said...

The key to Friday's dramatic development were two areas of evidence the defence had not been given prior to Mr. Walsh's trial. In the first of these, a group of CNR workers had made statements corroborating Mr. Walsh's account that he approached them in fear to ask for help against Mr. Peters and his combative friends.

The defence was also unaware that, within an hour or two of the killing, police overheard Mr. Peters' friends apparently cooking up a plan to frame Mr. Walsh for the killing. "In 1975 a jury convicted Erin in one hour, during which they stopped to eat," lawyer Sean MacDonald said in an interview. "With the power of his case today, as we now know it, there is not a jury in this country that would not acquit him in half that time. "This is the first recognized miscarriage of justice in two centuries in the province of New Brunswick," Mr. MacDonald added. "It is an opportunity for New Brunswick to rise to the challenge presented by miscarriages of justice — something some provinces do better than others."

On Aug. 11, 1975, Mr. Walsh and a travelling companion —George Ferguson — befriended three local roustabouts after they arrived in Saint John. A 24-hour drinking binge resulted in the shooting death of one of Mr. Peters - and the creation of a crude plot to pin the murder on Mr. Walsh.

Mr. Walsh was at a terrible disadvantage at his trial. Not only was he painted as an lawless drifter, but shortly before the trial, he took his own lawyer and several correctional officers hostage at the local jail. He released them after several hours, but the incident received massive publicity and was likely on the mind of most potential jurors. "I have never claimed to be an angel," Mr. Walsh said Friday. "What I have claimed is that I am a wrongfully convicted man. All I am asking is that I get justice."

"What is so exceptional about the case is the way that the New Brunswick attorney-general has approached it in a spirit of co-operation that I hope we will see in future cases in other provinces," Mr. Lockyer said in an interview. "All too often, prosecutors deny even the obvious in a case like this."

In a civil lawsuit launched last year by Mr. Walsh accused police and prosecutors in the case of targeting him in a manner that was "malicious, high-handed, outrageous, reckless, wanton, entirely without care, intentional, deliberate, callous, disgraceful, willful, exploitative, and in disregard of Erin's rights and indifferent to the consequences."

It alleged that prosecutor William McCarroll - now a New Brunswick Provincial Court judge - failed to disclose key evidence that would almost certainly have demolished the charge against him and spared him the lost of his freedom and a prison life dominated by psychiatric turmoil and physical abuse.

"Erin has always known that the only beneficiaries of the lawsuit would be his family," Mr. MacDonald said. "He is living out his final days in semi poverty. The lawsuit has always been primarily a vehicle to secure justice for Erin. My hope is that with respect to compensation that all the parties involved act swiftly and fairly before Erin dies. He deserves that."

Report here



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