Astounding Canadian case

How lucky do you have to be to have the real culprits come forward voluntarily? I know of only two previous such cases here and here.

Bad eyewitness ID again

The Ontario government is paying out $392,500, plus legal costs, to a Bayham man who spent 594 days in custody for crimes he didn't commit.

The Ontario Court of Appeal set aside Joseph Webber's conviction on 13 charges – including armed robbery, forcible confinement and extortion - after it found fresh evidence that demonstrated Webber did not commit the crimes.

This week the province announced a payout to Webber, 30. “I'd like to offer my sincere apologies to Mr. Webber for the miscarriage of justice that occurred,” Attorney General John Gerretsen said in a release.

On Feb. 8, 2008, Webber was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail after he was convicted on 13 charges stemming from a violent gunpoint home invasion southwest of Tillsonburg.

According to testimony provided during the trial, two men who were armed and wearing disguises entered an Eden Line home on Nov. 3, 2006. The suspects held the occupants at gunpoint inside the home and demanded money. One of the suspects took the homeowner to a bank and retrieved money.

At the trial, the homeowner identified Webber as one of the suspects.

But two men later came forward and admitted they were responsible for the crimes.

“It is my hope that Mr. Webber and his family will now be able to move forward and put these events behind them,” Gerretsen said.

Original report here




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