Canada: No investigation of wrongful conviction

The recent reversal of an 18-year-old conviction of a man in the killing his missing girlfriend will not be reviewed, the Ontario attorney general said Friday.

Robert Baltovich spent nine years in prison for killing Elizabeth Bain, whose body has never been found. His second trial ended in a speedy acquittal when prosecutors dropped the charges immediately after it opened. Attorney General Chris Bentley said he plans to focus on improving the criminal justice system in the province to prevent future miscarriages of justice, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported. He said he does not believe another examination of the case will provide more information on what went wrong.

Others disagree. "Obviously, things went awfully wrong for 18 years," said James Lockyer, Baltovich's lawyer. "An innocent man was prosecuted. The police made a complete mess of the case. The Crown's office made a complete mess of the case."

Original report here

Background

Robert Baltovich (born July 17, 1965) is a Canadian man who was wrongly convicted in 1992 of the murder of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. He spent eight years in prison and nearly another decade trying to clear his name, before being found not guilty in a retrial on April 22, 2008.

In 1990 Baltovich graduated with a degree in psychology and history from the University of Toronto at Scarborough. Here he also met and developed a relationship with Elizabeth Bain, a fellow student. Bain disappeared on June 19, 1990, telling her mother she was going to "check the tennis schedule" on campus. On June 22, her car was found with a large bloodstain in the back seat. Her body was never found.

On November 19, 1990, Baltovich was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. His case continued in the courts for several years, during which he consistently maintained his innocence. His lawyers suggested that the so-called "Scarborough rapist", the name by which the infamous Canadian serial killer Paul Bernardo was then known, might be responsible for the murder.

On March 31, 1992, he was convicted of second-degree murder. His lawyers appealed and on March 31, 2000, Baltovich was released on bail, pending the outcome of his appeal. In September 2004 his appeal was finally processed and his case gained national attention again when his lawyers alleged that he had been wrongfully convicted and that Bernardo was guilty of Bain's murder. They allege that circumstantial evidence suggests links to Bernardo, and that this evidence could not have been available during Baltovich's original trial as the identity of the Scarborough rapist was then unknown.

On December 2, 2004, the Ontario Court of Appeal set aside the conviction, delivering what news reports called "a scathing attack" [1] on the conduct of the original trial judge. This fell short of the acquittal that Baltovich's counsel had argued for. On July 15, 2005, Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney-General announced that Baltovich would face a new trial on charges of second-degree murder, at an unspecified date, and remain free on bail in the meantime. During that time, Baltovich worked as a librarian for the Government of Ontario.

On March 31, 2008, jury selection began in the second-degree murder trial. The trial, slated to begin in Toronto on April 14, 2008, was delayed, with the Crown (prosecution) giving no reason. When the trial resumed, the Crown declined to call any of the more than 50 witnesses they had planned, citing "recent developments, including the cumulative effect of the pre-trial evidentiary rulings rendered to date in this case, other evidentiary issues, and changes to case law".[2] With no Crown case, the judge directed the jury to make a finding of not guilty on April 22, 2008.[3]

Original report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)