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Anthony
Kporwodu and Angela Veno| Dr.
Joel Yelland | Dr. Roy Meadow
| Angela Cannings | Trupti Patel | Scotland
cases | Sally Clark |
Still to be exonerated: Darren Koehn
| Charles Smith's victims of malice: Brenda
Waudby | William Mullins-Johnson (this page) | Louise
Reynolds
Dr.
Charles Smith
William Mullins-Johnson
- 'Murderer'
could be free on bail by next week
Didn't kill niece, lawyers say
'Hopeful' as bail hearing nears
HAROLD LEVY, STAFF REPORTER
William Mullins-Johnson is
expected to be freed from prison next Wednesday on bail after
spending about 12 1/2 years behind bars for a murder independent
forensic experts say never happened.
The Sault Ste. Marie man was
arrested in 1993 and convicted the following year of strangling
his 4-year-old niece, Valin, a conviction that has been called
into question by two leading pathologists who said the girl died
of natural causes.
His lawyers appeared in court
yesterday, as he waited in Warkworth penitentiary near Campbellford,
to set a date for a bail hearing pending his application to have
his case reviewed by Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.
Lawyer James Lockyer, who represents
Mullins-Johnson along with lawyer David Bayliss, told the Toronto
Star they took the case on behalf of the Toronto-based
Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, which has gone
to bat for people involved in the most notorious miscarriages
of justice in Canada.
Lockyer said even though Mullins-Johnson
would have to spend another six days behind bars before appearing
in court for his bail hearing, "actually I am very pleased
that this is going to be so soon."
"We're very hopeful,"
Bayliss added.
Outside court, Laureena Hill,
Mullins-Johnson's mother, told reporters she did not want to
be too hopeful that her son will be released Wednesday - in the
past she had not much cause to put her faith in the criminal
justice system.
Convicted man set for
release next week
By JOE FRIESEN. Globe and
Mail, September 16, 2005 Page A1
His mother has prepared a freshly
furnished room in Sault Ste. Marie, with a new bed, a computer
and a television. And if the room's too small, she says she will
give up her own for him.
For 12 1/2 years, Ms. Hill
has prayed for the release of her son, William Mullins-Johnson,
convicted of raping and killing his four-year-old niece, Valin.
Every week, she sent him book-length letters filled with the
details of the life he was missing, from the weather to local
gossip. Now, after a new pathologist's report found Valin was
never raped and probably died of natural causes, it may be less
than a week until he can go home with his mother.
Yesterday, on her son's 35th
birthday, Ms. Hill sat in the front row as Crown lawyer Ken Campbell
told the court that Mr. Mullins-Johnson's bail hearing, scheduled
for next Wednesday, will probably last "significantly less
than an hour."
Legal experts say that indicates
the Crown is unlikely to oppose Mr. Mullins-Johnson's release
on bail.
Neither Mr. Campbell nor defence
lawyer James Lockyer would confirm that suspicion, and others
caution that it's hard to know what the Crown intends to do.
"I'm hoping they free
him next Wednesday, but it's hard to try and keep that [hope]
there in case it doesn't happen," Ms. Hill said outside
the court. "I don't know what I'd do anyway if they don't
release him."
Her voice went quiet for a
moment as she imagined the scenarios that could keep her son
behind bars.
"I don't trust anything
very much any more, especially since he ended up where he ended
up. Anything could happen. They could not believe that they have
a case now that he is innocent."
Hobbled by two sore and swollen
knees that need replacing and shaking with emotion at times,
Ms. Hill wiped sweat from her brow as she discussed her efforts
to free her son. On Wednesday, she visited Mr. Mullins-Johnson
at Warkworth Institution, a medium-security jail 150 kilometres
northeast of Toronto.
"I went to see him yesterday
and he's getting quite antsy. He was keeping everything calm
and now he's getting kind of jumpy," she said.
"Things are going very
quickly, and we didn't expect it to go this quickly."
Mr. Mullins-Johnson spent a
sleepless night this week after seeing a photo of himself with
Valin published in a Toronto newspaper. The photo shows the two
of them at Christmas, 1992, six months before she died.
"He said he was almost
forgetting what she looked like," Ms. Hill said. "All
he did was cry all night long."
Her son has just one wish if
he is released next week. He would like to go to a Toronto Blue
Jays game.
In an interview with The Globe
and Mail this week, Mr. Mullins-Johnson remembered watching the
Blue Jays play the Milwaukee Brewers on television the night
Valin died. He has been watching them from jail ever since.
Although there was no physical
evidence connecting him to the crime, his lawyers say it was
bad forensic work that convicted him.
Several pathologists, including
Charles Smith, whose work in 40 cases is being reviewed by the
Ontario coroner's office, concluded that Valin had been anally
raped and strangled or smothered. A new investigation conducted
by chief forensic pathologist Michael Pollanen says the signs
of rape and strangulation were actually natural post-mortem occurrences
that were misinterpreted.
Lawyers for the Association
in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted have applied to Federal Justice
Minister Irwin Cotler to have the conviction quashed. Mr. Cotler
can either refer the case back to the appeal court, order a new
trial, or declare Mr. Mullins-Johnson innocent. He will make
that decision after an investigation by counsel in his office
that could take several months. In the meantime, Mr. Mullins-Johnson's
lawyers have applied for bail in the hope that he'll be allowed
out of prison for the next several months, perhaps years, while
his case is decided.
Although there is no provision
in the Criminal Code for the bail of convicted murderers, a precedent
was established with the release of Romeo Phillion in 2003. That
case was argued by Mr. Lockyer and presided over by Mr. Justice
David Watt, who is also the judge in this case.
John Rosen, a prominent criminal defence lawyer in Toronto, said
the Crown's request for a very short bail hearing is a sign that
they aren't likely to stand in the way of Mr. Mullins-Johnson's
release.
"If the prosecution indicates
it doesn't need much time for the application, then that usually
signals a consent to the release and the only issue will be the
terms of the release," he said.
Toronto Star Editorial:
Correct this injustice
September 15, 2005
Swift justice is not always
true justice. That may be the case with William Mullins-Johnson,
a Sault Ste. Marie man who was convicted by a jury in six hours
and has spent more than 12 years in prison for a murder that
is now in doubt.
Mullins-Johnson, convicted
of killing his 4-year-old niece while babysitting her on the
basis of evidence that is now being challenged, has always maintained
his innocence.
The Toronto-based Association
in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted has taken up his cause. A
senior official in the Ontario chief coroner's office and an
international forensic expert suggest Mullins-Johnson was a victim
of a miscarriage of justice. After reviewing the evidence they
believe the child died of natural causes.
The association has urged federal
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler to intervene. And with good reason.
Vindication can be painfully
slow arriving. David Milgaard spent an unconscionable 23 years
behind bars before being freed.
Mullins-Johnson will face a
bail hearing today and could be freed. Given the doubt that now
exists, the provincial attorney general's office has reason not
to oppose his release.
But it is up to Cotler to resolve
this matter. He can nullify the conviction, send the case to
the Ontario Court of Appeal or order a new trial.
Whatever his course of action,
Cotler should act promptly. Mullins-Johnson deserves better.
New report says Ont.
man wrongfully convicted
CTV.ca News Staff
, September 14, 2005
Laureena Hill said her son
was "totally stunned" when he learned a new legal brief
said he's been wrongly convicted for the rape and murder of his
four-year-old niece.
After telling him the news
over the phone, Hill said her son "couldn't say anything.
And I know exactly what he was going through because when they
told me, that's the way I reacted," Hill told CTV's Canada
AM on Wednesday.
"It's just like I couldn't
think and I was like that for hours. And then all of a sudden
the tears started."
Her son, Williams Mullins-Johnson,
of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., has languished behind bars for 12
years for a crime he says he didn't commit. In 1994, he was convicted
of raping and murdering Valin Johnson in 1993, and was sentenced
to life in jail.
His conviction was based in
part on a report by Dr. Charles Smith, a forensic pathologist,
who said the little girl had been sexually assaulted and died
of mechanical asphyxia (strangulation).
Now, a new report by the province's
chief pathologist backs the man's claim of innocence. The report
rejects the earlier coroner's report, and says the child was
never raped and likely died of natural causes.
Following this latest report,
lawyers for the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted
(AIDWYC) have asked the Federal Minister of Justice to review
Mullins-Johnson's conviction.
They will be applying for bail
for their client on Thursday.
"I hope I haven't got
a battle on my hands. The attorney general of Ontario can consent
to his release," said lawyer James Lockyer, director of
the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, appearing
on CTV Newsnet.
"And I am hoping that
he will do that perhaps as soon as Thursday of this week."
Smith's work in 40 homicides
and deaths is the subject of an investigation by Ontario's Chief
Coroner.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for
the Ministry of the Attorney General declined to discuss whether
the province would oppose bail.
Hill, the mother of the accused,
said she never gave up hope that her son was innocent.
"I believed in Bill all
the time," she said through tears.
"For seven years, that's
all we did was cry Every time I spoke to him on the phone, every
time I went to visit him in prison, one of the hardest things
for me to do was walk into that place, and then have to walk
out and leave him there."
Mullins-Johnson was 22 when
his niece died. He had been living at the home of his half-brother,
Paul Johnson.
On Saturday, June 26, 1993,
his sister-in-law, Kim Lariviere, asked him to babysit after
dinner for her children, aged 3, 4 and 6.
Valin watched TV with Mullins-Johnson
for a bit and then put herself to bed. She had been suffering
from a fever earlier in the day.
When Mullins-Johnson checked
on her at 8 p.m., she was sleeping. When Lariviere came home,
she didn't look in on her daughter that night.
When she did check on Valin
the next morning at 7 a.m., she saw vomit on the bed and when
she turned her daughter over, she was purple.
The coroner who worked the
case, Smith, was an expert witness at Mullins-Johnson's trial.
His most stunning testimony
suggested Valin had suffered trauma to her rectum, which he said
was caused by a large, blunt object.
Dr. Michael Pollanen, director
of forensic pathology with Ontario's coroner's office, disputed
that finding. He said there was no evidence of "acute penetrating
anal trauma in Valin Johnson."
Pollanen also said there was no semen found on Valin nor her
pyjamas, and no DNA found on Mullins-Johnson.
In fact, Pollanen believes
Valin died of natural causes.
Mullins-Johnson's lawyer David
Bayliss explained on CTV's Canada AM Wednesday that Smith misinterpreted
changes in the little girl's body after death, "which are
the sort of changes that all bodies go through after death."
One of those changes, the pooling
of the blood in the body, was "misinterpreted as bruising
on her scalp, on her neck, all over her body," said Bayliss.
"And really there was almost no bruising at all."
Ontario's Chief Coroner, Dr. Barry McLellan, ordered a review
of all of Smith's work in June, after concerns were raised about
the cases in which he was either a leading or a consulting pathologist.
Smith has since resigned from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.
His work on three high-profile
cases led to a reprimand in 2002 from the College of Physicians
and Surgeons.
Meanwhile, Lockyer is calling
for Canada to implement a better system to deal with wrongful
convictions.
"This is a familiar problem:
people spending years in jail for crimes that didn't happen as
a result of erroneous pathology," he told The Canadian Press.
He said Canada needs an independent
tribunal to re-examine wrongful conviction claims such as one
established in the U.K. eight years ago, which has since found
more than 50 murder convictions were unjustified.
"All we have now is a
sort of a piecemeal examination of a case here and case there
primarily brought forward by our organization," said Lockyer.
"It's just not good enough."
- 'Murderer' didn't do
it, experts say
Two pathologists say 4-year-old girl died in 1993 of natural
causes
- Lawyers make bid for
release of uncle who is still behind bars after 12 years
HAROLD LEVY
STAFF REPORTER, September 13, 2005
William Mullins-Johnson has
been in jail for the murder of his 4-year-old niece, Valin, for
more than 12 years.
Regarded as "different"
by family and friends, the 34-year-old Sault Ste. Marie man was
convicted in 1994 by a jury that deliberated for six hours after
hearing scientific evidence that convinced them Mullins-Johnson
had sodomized and strangled his young niece in 1993.
Now, a top official in the
Ontario chief coroner's office and an internationally renowned
pathologist say the murder never happened and that Valin died
of natural causes.
A legal brief prepared by Toronto-based
Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) maintains
virtually all of the pathologists and medical experts who testified
at the trial got it wrong in some way or other, most notably
Dr. Charles Smith, the former head of the pediatric forensic
pathology unit at the Hospital for Sick Children, who said he
found evidence of anal rape.
Lawyer James Lockyer, assisted
by Toronto lawyer David Bayliss, prepared the brief to persuade
federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler to quash Mullins-Johnson's
conviction on the basis that he is the victim of a miscarriage
of justice.
Mullins-Johnson still remembers
with horror the day he was charged.
"It ripped my soul out
- and right from the first allegation it destroyed my life,"
he said during an interview two weeks ago at Warkworth penitentiary.
He remembers his niece as a perky child who was "very smart,
very mischievous, very funny and very special to me."
Within days of his arrest,
Mullins-Johnson was in a segregation cell at the Sault Ste. Marie
jail where this giant of a man - 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds - could
not eat.
"I had guys in other cells
pounding on the wall beside me saying: `You're going to f---ing
die. We're going to cut your f---ing head off,'" he recalled.
"If anybody would have got to me I wasn't in a position
to defend myself. That's how much out of it I was."
For a dozen years, Mullins-Johnson,
who will turn 35 on Thursday, has been able to keep going because
of his innocence and his mother who stood by him and fought tirelessly
for his release, even though it caused her to be shunned by her
family.
"What gave me hope was
mom. She would not let me give up," he said. "There
were times when I literally wanted to slash my wrists and be
done with this."
In his legal brief, Lockyer
says: "This (Mullins-Johnson) case has all the hallmarks
of his (Smith's) modus-operandi of finding murder where it does
not exist."
Smith, who has been involved
in several prominent cases where parents were charged with killing
their children, resigned his position at the Hospital for Sick
Children in Toronto on July 9, just weeks after Ontario's chief
coroner ordered a review of all of the suspicious death cases
Smith had handled since 1991, saying the review was necessary
"to maintain public confidence in the administration of
justice."
Smith was also identified with
the case of Louise Reynolds of Kingston, who was accused in 1997
of killing her 7-year-old daughter. The charge was dropped after
experts found she had been mauled by a pit bull.
In fact, Mullins-Johnson came
close to losing his only opportunity to be exonerated when Smith
misplaced the forensic materials from the original autopsy, which
had been sent to him for an opinion. But earlier this year, officials
dispatched by Chief Coroner Dr. Barry McLellan located the crucial
materials on Smith's desk.
The brief, filed in court yesterday
in support of Mullins-Johnson's release from prison pending Cotler's
review, states that Dr. Michael Pollanen, a top pathologist in
McLellan's office, analyzed the materials and concluded that
Valin Johnson was neither sodomized or strangled - but died a
sudden natural death. Pollanen's conclusions are supported by
Dr. Bernard Knight, a Welsh pathologist.
The case began when Valin Johnson's
parents found their daughter dead on her bed in their Sault Ste.
Marie home around 7 a.m. on June 27, 1993. There was vomit around
her mouth and on the bed.
`It ripped my soul out
- and right from the first allegation it destroyed my life' --
William Mullins-Johnson, convicted of murdering his niece, 4
The brief says that following
an autopsy which began six hours later, local pathologist Dr.
Bhubendra Rasaiah and others in attendance "quickly"
concluded that Valin had been the victim of chronic abuse and
had likely been strangled or smothered.
Their conclusions were later
buttressed by Smith, who said he saw clear evidence - not detected
by anyone present at the autopsy - that Valin died while being
anally raped.
Suspicion immediately focused
on Mullins-Johnson, Valin's uncle, who had been living in the
home, because he had been babysitting Valin and her 3-year-old
brother the previous evening from 7 p.m. until their mother returned
home at 9:30 p.m. The mother did not check on Valin until the
morning when she found her dead.
Mullins-Johnson was arrested
at 6:30 p.m. that day, despite his outpourings of grief over
Valin's death and ferocious protests of his innocence.
Kim Lariviere told the police
at the time that "the children loved staying with Billy."
Ontario Court of Appeal Justice
Stephen Borins would later rule, in a dissenting judgment, that
"there was no suggestion that the appellant (Mullins-Johnson)
had previously abused the deceased, sexually or otherwise, nor
of any motive for the commission of any offence against her."
"He adored that girl and
would never hurt her," said Laureena Hill, Mullins-Johnson's
mother and Valin's grandmother, in an interview.
Prosecutors argued, based on
Smith's finding of sodomy that Mullins-Johnson was guilty of
first-degree murder - which is murder during the commission of
a criminal offence.
Mullins-Johnson told the jury
that when he put Valin to bed around 7.30 p.m., the last time
he saw her alive, "She gave me a kiss and hug the way she
always did, told ... told me she loved me and I told her I loved
her and she went off to bed herself, and left me and John downstairs."
Although the Crown alleged
that Mullins-Johnson had murdered Valin during an anal rape there
was no evidence of any bodily substances being transferred between
them, no semen was found anywhere on Valin or her pyjamas, and
no DNA material from Valin was found on Mullins-Johnson's clothing.
But the jury took only six
hours to convict Mullins-Johnson of first-degree murder after
prosecutor Glen Wasyliniuk ended his jury address with the words,
"she died when there were fresh bruises that indicated sexual
assault, and she was killed by that man right there."
Years later, Pollanen would
make short shrift of those "fresh bruises" on Valin's
thighs and buttock, saying the presence of the two or three bruises
could be explained by a number of possibilities including her
learning to ride a bicycle.
Now, Mullins-Johnson is waiting
for a hearing in Superior Court in Toronto on Thursday, on his
application for bail pending the ministerial review.
If Cotler decides that there
has been a miscarriage of justice he can nullify the conviction
and either send the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal or order
a new trial which Lockyer says would be the quicker and therefore
preferable route.
In an interview at her home
on the Rankin reserve in Sault Ste. Marie, Laureena Hill said
her son "Billy" was doomed from the outset because
people including Valin's parents, Kim Lariviere and Paul Johnson,
were willing to believe he could be a killer because from his
earliest days he was "different."
"He was six feet tall
when he was 12 years old so they always expected him to behave
like a man instead of a kid," she explained.
Hill said the reason her son
was "different" was that when he was just 3 1/2
months old he went partially blind and deaf from a swelling in
his brain which may have influenced his development.
Today she wonders what will
happen to "Billy" when he finally gets out of prison
after all these years, and how a family that has been torn apart
in so many ways can put itself together once again.
A convicted killer's
quest for justice
June 27, 1993: Valin Johnson is found dead in her
bed in her Sault. Ste. Marie home. At an autopsy later in the
day, a pathologist concludes that she was sodomized and strangled.
Valin's uncle William Mullins-Johnson, who babysat her the previous
evening, is charged with first-degree murder.
Sept. 21, 1994: After deliberating for only six hours,
the jury convicts Mullins-Johnson of first-degree murder. He's
sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance for parole for
25 years.
Dec. 19, 1996: The Ontario Court of Appeal turns down
Mullins-Johnson's appeal - but Justice Steven Borins issues a
powerful dissent in which he notes there was no evidence that
Mullins-Johnson had ever abused Valin, sexually or otherwise;
there was no motive proven; and the scientific evidence of a
recent sexual assault was flawed.
May 26, 1998: The Supreme Court of Canada turns down
Mullins-Johnson's appeal.
June 18, 1998: Mullins-Johnson turns to the Association
in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted for help. "I honestly
believe I will not win in this fight all by myself," he
writes. ``I am asking for help because nobody is going to listen
to a native convict convicted of a murder with sexual overtones
in the case."
Dec. 28, 2001: Toronto lawyer David Bayliss, who took
the case for AIDWYC, asks Ontario coroner's office to review
work conducted by pathologist Dr. Charles Smith.
Feb. 27, 2003: Bayliss asks Crown lawyers for the
forensic materials from the autopsy so they can be independently
tested. When Smith, who received the items on June 22, 1994,
does not respond to their letters, police are asked to look into
their disappearance. The majority of the materials were not located
until May 2005.
May 24, 2005: Dr. Michael Pollanen, a top official
in the Ontario Chief Coroner's office, reports that Valin Johnson
had never been sexually abused and died a natural death.
Sept. 8, 2005: Mullins-Johnson's application for a
review of his case as a miscarriage of justice is filed with
federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.
Sept. 11, 2005: Mullins-Johnson files papers in Superior
Court for a hearing on Thursday in which he will be seeking release
on bail pending the ministerial review.
COMPILED BY HAROLD LEVY
'Gentle boy'
no murderer, uncle says
Businessman was `shocked' at 1994 verdict
Willing to risk all he owns to bail out imprisoned man
HAROLD LEVY, Toronto Star,
STAFF REPORTER
A Sault Ste. Marie businessman
has offered to put up his entire fortune - worth an estimated
$1.2 million - in support of his great nephew's application for
bail pending a review of his nephew's case by Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler.
Gordon Boissoneau has offered
to be a surety for his nephew, William Mullins-Johnson, who has
been in jail for more than 12 years for first-degree murder and
could remain in prison for the rest of his life if Cotler turns
down his application.
Mullins-Johnson was convicted
in 1994 of strangling his 4-year-old niece, Valin, a conviction
that has been called into question by two leading pathologists.
Boissoneau, in an affidavit
filed in court for Mullins-Johnson's bail hearing, says that
he followed the trial closely and was "shocked" at
the verdict.
"I knew him to be a gentle
boy and I had difficulty accepting that he was capable of killing,
never mind one of his young relatives, all of whom he seemed
to have a warm and healthy relationship with," says Boissoneau.
"On the other hand, the police and the press stated that
someone had raped and killed Valin; we really did not know what
to think at this incredible stressful time for our extended family."
Yesterday, Boissoneau attended
a news conference in Toronto at which lawyers for the Association
in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted called on Attorney General
Michael Bryant to agree to Mullins-Johnson's release from prison
pending the review. Mullins-Johnson will appear in Superior Court
tomorrow to set a date for a bail hearing.
Boissoneau's wealth is comprised
of his family home, three other residential properties and a
bus line business for school children.
"I understand I can lose
part or all of any amount I commit to secure William's release,"
he says. "I have no doubt whatsoever that William will comply
with all the conditions of his bail if he is released."
Mullins-Johnson's application
is based on the independent findings of Dr. Michael Pollanen,
a senior official in the Ontario Chief Coroner's office, supported
by Dr. Bernard Knight, an internationally renowned pathologist.
Their findings, which contradict forensic evidence called at
the trial, state that Valin died of natural causes.
Pollanen found that markings
on Valin's face, neck and chest and a hemorrhage inside her neck
interpreted at the autopsy as being evidence of sexual abuse
and manual strangulation were caused either by the pooling of
blood after her death or by incisions made on her body during
the autopsy.
Pollanen has offered five possible
medical explanations for Valin's death - she was found dead in
her bed at her family home on the morning of June 27, 1993 -
ranging from failure of the muscular tissues of her heart to
a genetic cause.
In his own affidavit, Mullins-Johnson
says he was convicted of a crime that he did not commit and has
never understood how he was convicted. He also vows not to violate
the terms of his release.
"I have too much to lose
(and) not just my freedom but also my hope for exoneration,"
he says. "I owe a lot to Dr. Pollanen in Toronto and Dr.
Knight in Wales, neither of whom I have ever met.
"I will not let them,
or my mother or my uncle or the Court, down."
Mullins-Johnson, who turns
35 tomorrow, says that he has largely kept to himself in prison
over the past 12 years "because I knew that I would not
want to associate with someone convicted of my crime."
He acknowledges that in 1989
when he was 18 he committed a "serious crime" with
another man, was charged with robbery, pleaded guilty a short
time later, and was sentenced to two years less a day in reformatory.
Mullins-Johnson also says in
his affidavit that he has been "mostly incident free"
since arriving in the penitentiary system, and that he has completed
an Aboriginal Substance Abuse program "as I acknowledge
that I drank too much and smoked too much marijuana before my
institutionalization."
Mullins-Johnson is only the
third person in Canadian history to apply for release from prison
pending a ministerial review.
I PRAYED FOR THIS EVERY
NIGHT
TORONTO -- Laureena Hill has
been waiting for her son, William Mullins-Johnson, to come home
for more than 12 years. With that day now in sight, the thought
of seeing him walk free sends a flood of tears sliding down her
cheeks.
"Billie has been used
so badly," she said at a news conference held by the Association
in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) yesterday. "For
the longest time we believed he was innocent. And as a matter
of fact, some family and friends have shunned me because they
said all I ever did was talk about him. [I] couldn't stop talking
about him."
Mr. Mullins-Johnson has spent
more than 12 years in prison, convicted of the rape and murder
of his four-year-old niece, Valin, but a new report by the province's
chief pathologist says the child was never raped and likely died
of natural causes.
"It's a prayer answered,"
Ms. Hill said. "I prayed for this every night for 12 years
without fail.
Justice officials would not
say whether they will oppose a bail application from Mr. Mullins-Johnson.
But his lawyers urged the Ontario Attorney-General to heed a
report from its coroner's office that says Mr. Mullins-Johnson
is being held for a murder that never happened.
"I am worried that the
Attorney-General of Ontario will react to this case the same
way they've reacted to others, with a lack of urgency, a lack
of concern and an inability to acknowledge the inevitable,"
AIDWYC director James Lockyer said.
"The Attorney-General
should surely be considering urging the court to immediately
release William because it is a senior official within their
own ministry who is telling them that they have an innocent man
in jail."
Michael Pollanen, Ontario's chief forensic pathologist, launched
an investigation into the case last December after questions
were raised about the methods of embattled pathologist Charles
Smith, whose work in dozens of homicides and suspicious deaths
is under review. Dr. Pollanen issued a preliminary report to
the Crown in January, and a supplementary report was issued in
May. But it may be months before Mr. Mullins-Johnson has a chance
to clear his name.
With his appeals exhausted,
his lawyers have applied to the federal Minister of Justice under
Section 696 of the Criminal Code to quash the conviction and
order a new trial.
Kerry Scullion, senior counsel
in the criminal conviction review group, said it could be several
months before their investigation is complete. In the meantime,
Mr. Mullins-Johnson is seeking bail. A spokesman for Ontario's
Attorney-General would not say whether the Crown will support
the bail application, nor would he comment on why the information
contained in Dr. Pollanen's report did not lead to action on
their part.
"There are legal processes
in place that are currently under way in connection with this
matter," Brendan Crawley said.
"We respect both of these
processes, i.e. the bail application and the Section 696 process,
and will provide our position and our submissions in this matter
in the proper forum, that being the court."
Dr. Pollanen concluded that
Valin was not raped before she died. The enlarged anus that Dr.
Smith and two other doctors cited as evidence of abuse was a
natural occurrence that resulted from the relaxing of muscles
after death, he said. And the genital bruising taken as evidence
of abuse, as well as the bruising on the neck that led the doctors
to conclude she was strangled or smothered, were the result of
blood pooling in those areas after death.
"The case for the innocence
of William Mullins-Johnson is so overwhelming that he really
shouldn't be spending another day in jail," said his lawyer,
David Bayliss, who is a member of AIDWYC.
Mr. Lockyer also called yesterday
for a new kind of non-governmental tribunal or commission to
oversee wrongful conviction claims, as has been done in Britain.
He said this would serve a
function different from appeals courts and would provide a systematic
outlet for cases such as Mr. Mullins-Johnson's.
"The role of the appeal
courts is not to look into issues of factual innocence. They
look into issues of whether the person received a fair trial,
whether there were mistakes made in the way the trial was conducted,
and at the end of the day you can have a completely fair trial
but still be convicted of a crime you didn't commit."
A date for Mr. Mullins-Johnson's
bail hearing will be set on tomorrow
YET ANOTHER TRAVESTY
Globe and Mail, , September
14, 2005
To be sentenced to life in
prison for a rape and murder that never happened is no ordinary
wrongful conviction. This is the horror that befell William Mullins-Johnson
of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., who has been in jail for the past
12 years. His conviction speaks to the surprising frailty of
the presumption of innocence in Canadian justice. That presumption
could not survive the testimony of a pathologist whose work is
now considered suspect. Charles Smith was, for nearly 20 years,
the leading expert on child deaths in Ontario.
Mr. Mullins-Johnson, then 22,
had been babysitting his four-year-old niece Valin Johnson one
evening until 9:30. At 7 in the morning, her mother found her
lying dead in her bed. There was vomit on the bed and floor.
An autopsy found a large opening in the rectum and bruising around
the vagina. One pathologist with no experience in forensics put
the time of death between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Then it was the
turn of Dr. Smith, a pediatric forensic pathologist and a member
of a five-member autopsy team from the provincial coroner's office.
He said the injury to her rectum was caused by a blunt, round
object within minutes of her death.
Yet there was no semen found,
nor was any of the girl's DNA found on Mr. Mullins-Johnson, who
is aboriginal. Where was the reasonable doubt? The girl had been
ill with a fever for two days and an independent pathologist's
review has now found that the time of death was uncertain, that
she may have died of natural causes, and that Dr. Smith's devastating
findings of acute trauma to the rectum were plain wrong.
Dr. Smith is no longer investigating
children's deaths. Five years ago, a criminologist who reviewed
25 infant autopsies handled by Dr. Smith discovered that he made
a finding of foul play in every case. Based on one of his reports,
a mother in Kingston spent two years in jail awaiting trial on
a charge of using a scissors to murder her seven-year-old daughter.
It later emerged that her daughter had been killed by a pit bull.
The Chief Coroner's Office is overseeing an inquiry into 40 homicide
and suspicious-death cases Dr. Smith was involved in since 1991.
The outrageous conviction of
Mr. Mullins-Johnson for a killing that never happened is a reminder
of the fallibility of public officials, even medical experts,
and of the frailty of the supposed checks and balances within
coroners' and Crown attorneys' offices. Too many took too much
on faith, ignored red flags, and in the end, devalued the presumption
of innocence.
Evidence of another
wrongful murder conviction sparks call for new process
September 13, 2005, EST.
TORONTO (CP) - The dozen years an Ontario man has languished
in jail after being convicted of raping and killing a four-year-old
girl is just one more painful reason Canada needs a better system
to deal with wrongful convictions, his supporters said Tuesday.
They also called on Ontario's
attorney general to agree that Bill Mullins-Johnson should get
bail while Ottawa decides how to deal with what they say is the
latest name on a long list of miscarriages of justice.
"Once again we have a
man who's spent a lot of time in jail - 12 1/2 years in his case
- not just for a crime he didn't commit, but for a crime that
never happened," said lawyer James Lockyer, director of
the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.
"This is a familiar problem:
people spending years in jail for crimes that didn't happen as
a result of erroneous pathology."
Mullins-Johnson, 34, of Sault
Ste. Marie, Ont., was convicted of first-degree murder in 1994
for sodomizing and strangling his four-year-old niece Valin Johnson
in June 1993.
The conviction was based on
what his backers call a "rush to judgment" by pathologists,
who testified Valin had been chronically sexually abused and
strangled or smothered.
Their findings were backed
up by Dr. Charles Smith, a controversial Toronto pathologist
whose conclusions in dozens of child deaths are currently under
review.
Smith told Mullins-Johnson's
trial there was clear evidence Valin was killed while being anally
raped, something no one who did the actual autopsy had detected.
Nor was there any semen or
other DNA evidence to support that finding.
Now, Dr. Michael Pollanen,
a top pathologist with Ontario's coroner's office, and a British
expert, have both concluded Valin was neither abused, sodomized
nor strangled.
In fact, they believe she died
of natural causes.
Lockyer wants federal Justice
Minister Irwin Cotler to quash the conviction and order a new
trial or, at the very least, refer it back to the Ontario Court
of Appeal.
A spokesman for the Ministry
of the Attorney General refused to discuss whether the province
would oppose bail.
Association lawyer David Bayliss
called the case another example of the perils of scientific evidence.
"Science can redeem you
in some cases," said Bayliss.
"But poor science can
also condemn you, and poor science is what condemned Mr. Mullins-Johnson."
Laureena Hill, who has fought
tirelessly for her son's release, sobbed as she discussed her
long struggle.
"It started out such a
good day and I can't seem to quit crying," she said.
"Billy has been used so
badly. He never would have done that. It's not in his character
"
Ron Dalton, who spent more
than eight years in jail for killing his wife even though she
had choked on cereal, flew in from St. John's, N.L., Tuesday
to "share the family's pain" but said he was also angry.
"It's very upsetting after
the number of wrongful convictions that have happened in this
country," Dalton said.
"The list is getting very
long."
Lockyer said Canada needs an
independent tribunal to review claims of wrongful convictions
such as one set up in the U.K. eight years ago.
It has already found more than
50 murder convictions were unjustified.
"All we have now is a
sort of a piecemeal examination of a case here and case there
primarily brought forward by our organization," said Lockyer.
"It's just not good enough."
Lockyer said Ontario has been
"the worst province" when it comes to dealing with
such cases and that promises made after the notorious wrongful
murder prosecution of Guy Paul Morin have gone unkept.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
