Networked Knowledge - Media Reports

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

Dr Charles Smith Homepage
Canadian Issues Homepage
Article on Australian miscarriage of justice cases
Article on UK miscarriage of justice cases
Article on USA miscarriage of justice cases

On 14 July 2008 Canadian Press reported “Groups behind Truscott victory mulls widening focus to non-murder convictions”.

TORONTO — It said a fter years of combating miscarriages of justice involving high-profile murder convictions, the organization behind Steven Truscott's acquittal and multimillion-dollar compensation award is considering widening its mandate beyond homicide. With a successful test case under its belt - the exoneration of a man jailed for an assault Paul Bernardo has confessed to - the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted is looking to non-murder cases. It's a move that at least one legal expert says could swell the ranks of the wrongfully convicted in this country. The effectiveness of DNA evidence in clearing people of wrongful murder convictions is at least partly behind the expanded focus, said Paul Copeland, co-president of AIDWYC. There's less coming in, Copeland said of the murder cases which used to pour into AIDWYC's offices. We've been discussing broadening the criteria to take on other non-death cases.

Since its inception in 1993, the association has railed against a justice system that has put people like Guy Paul Morin and William-Mullins Johnson behind bars for years for crimes they did not commit. Last week, Truscott was awarded $6.5 million following a 2007 Ontario Court of Appeal decision that found he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. It was the culmination of decade-long battle undertaken by AIDWYC to clear Truscott's name of the 1959 killing of his 12-year-old classmate, Lynne Harper. Until now, the association has only adopted sure-fire win homicide cases where DNA or strong proof of factual innocence were present. The legal group has not lost a court battle. AIDWYC has been remarkably effective. I know they carefully screen the cases, said Christopher Sherrin, an assistant professor of law at the University of Western and former director of the innocence project at Osgoode Hall law school.

The group's ability to overturn decades-old cases is a long process involving years of work. They must compile the case, review the files, obtain materials, interview people and send items for testing - all before putting together a complex application to the justice minister. Word that the group may aim its efforts at non-murder cases intrigued Sherrin, who called AIDWYC a last chance for people wronged by the justice system. DNA evidence is more commonly available in sexual assault cases and therefore makes it easier to exonerate the convicted, he said. There's certainly been a number of documented wrongful convictions, in particular, in sexual assault cases, Sherrin said. To the extent DNA can be quite powerful and dispositive, as it has been in many of the murder cases taken on by AIDWYC, it seems like a natural fit.

The case of Anthony Hanemaayer, a London, Ont., roofer who pleaded guilty part way through his 1989 trial for the assault of a 15-year-old Toronto girl to avoid a stiffer sentence, proved a successful test case for the association. Bernardo confessed to the crime in a jailhouse interview with police two years ago. Last month, AIDWYC brought the case before the Appeals Court and Hanemaayer was exonerated. Hanemaayer calls the process of clearing his name painful, but he says if it weren't for AIDWYC's efforts he would always be associated with a crime he did not commit. Back then I didn't have no money and my parents had no money and if you don't have money to represent yourself properly the legal system just eats you up, said Hanemaayer, I am so forever in their debt, AIDWYC and everybody who helped me.

As the organization looks at broadening its focus, Copeland said it will wrestle with its own frailties. The group, which currently has some 50 cases under review, is volunteer one with lawyers working pro bono. Copeland admits it's a difficult organization to raise funds for because few corporate donors want to be associated with the criminal justice system. It's always a little bit wondering where the next dollar is going to come from, he said.

Top of Page