|
Update
on wrongful convictions in Canada, October, 2004
David Milgaard
 January
25, 2005: The
Federal government released the first
national examination of the reasons for so many wrongful convictions
in Canada. This
should be required reading for every prosecutor, cop and criminal
defence lawyer in the country. News reports
This is one of our first pages. Along with
Steven Truscott, we identified the David Milgaard case as a gross
miscarriage of justice in 1998 |
Long-awaited Public Inquiry begins, Jan. 17, 2005
David Milgaard
is part of Canadian history. It would seem to be a history from
which police and prosecutors have learned very little.
The public, on the other hand,
is interested in learning. This page is one of the most often
visited -- as people scour the internet looking for information.
We are learning of new cases of wrongful convictions in Canada
every week! We try to catch them all but we have no way of telling
if we have missed one. (We no longer even attempt to keep up
with the U.S. which has become a wrongful-conviction factory.
We are always interested in cases people send to us.)
 "It
doesn't matter if Milgaard is innocent... The whole judicial
system is at issue- -it's worth more than one person."
Serge
Kujawa, Saskatchewan Crown prosecutor
See also news
articles and comment on the Milgaard settlement as it was unfolding, Steven Truscott: Close to exoneration.
Injusticebusters receives many requests for information regarding
the wrongly convicted. Full reports on the Larry Fisher trial (which resulted
in his conviction for killing Gail Miller)
David Milgaard
received a settlement far too late for it to have much meaning
for him personally. Joyce Milgaard fought her way through indifference
and outright lies and still, the Saskatoon Police Service vilifies
him. In the new millenium, they do not seem to have changed their
tune at all. This same police service has promoted the vile Brian
Dueck to the rank of Superintendent. It has resisted efforts
by the Native Community to get it to clean up its act. Nonetheless,
certain truths are coming to light and many who have accepted
the lies of the past will be shown to be the craven and malicious
cowards they are. It is injusticebusters' intention to do everything
in our power to get rid of the corrupt police officers and to
support those honest cops who don't want to be smeared with the
lies of the past. The longer they remain silent, the more implicated
they become!
Saskatoon
Police: Come Clean and start by telling the truth about Milgaard!
This page has been up since
December, 1998. We keep it up here to remind us that all the
hard work is worthwhile. Joyce Milgaard is our hero and we hope
she is getting some time to relax. We hope that David Milgaard
is able to find some peace. It is important that some Saskatchewan
people keep fighting against a justice system run on greed and
malice.
This is
the granddaddy of the growing number of cover-ups in Saskatchewan.
The tradition in this province is to keep adding more layers
to the cover. Let's scrape these lies off our province!
1995
article from Simon Fraser Peak
| Milgaard cash deal appears
imminent | Milgaard
compensation deal may be near | Milgaard's
mom 'flipping mad over payment: The $150,000 goes straight to
the lawyers, Not David, she says, April 27, 1999 |
Milgaard locked
up, Committed to psychiatric unit in B.C., April 30, 1999
| Nilson ready to talk
:Milgaards pressing for compensation, May 1, 1999 Time to
get justice for Steven Truscott |
Saskatoon Police Story
Action:
Joyce
Milgaard announced she will camp on the lawn of the Regina Legislature
to pressure the Saskatchewan government to pay David. She points
out that money received so far has gone to lawyers. injusticebusters will join Joyce. We
urge all Saskatchewan citizens who have been damaged by the Saskatchewan
government's whitewash and cover-up apparatus to join also. Some
of the stories they have tried to cover appear on this website.
We know that there are many more grievances which have been more
successfully covered through coercive gag orders negotiated by
lawyers
or covered
through other methods of intimidation. There are deadly secrets
in the uranium industry. Saskatchewan holds itself up as a world
leader in health care, but that claim becomes a joke as we watch
how it manipulated the nurses. Roy Romanow has strutted on the international stage, trading
on his reputation as an honest negotiator. All signs indicate
it is his intention to move out of provincial politics and into
a larger arena. We must not let him out of here until his government
comes clean and deals honestly with the backlog of shame. Pay
David Milgaard! Romanow:
Come clean about the Foster Parent Scandal and Martensville!
Stop jerking us around! E-mail injusticebusters with suggestions and
information to make this action effective!
Joyce Milgaard is publicizing
her new book, A Mother's Story. coauthored with justice
journalist Peter Edwards.Her commitment to seeking justice for
falsely accused persons is an inspiration to us all. David's
case is the grand-daddy of the cover-ups and Joyce Milgaard is
the godmother of justice. In her footsteps are Maureen and Gervaise
Miller who will not stop until the cops who they believe killed
their son Clayton are brought
to justice. See also Martensville
and Cover-up in the Foster Parent Scandal
This page
provides a history of the events leading to the financial compensation
which David Milgaard finally received. We will keep this page
here, as an example of what hard work can accomplish and with
the hope that others who have had their lives wrecked by greedy
officials and malicious administrations can also get proper compensation.
Saskatchewan is not the only place which is guilty of smearing
and victimizing its citizens. But it is a prototype. Let the
shred of justice which has finally been extended to David Milgaard
become the model for future settlements!
David Milgaard
wasn't the only one
By YVONNE CRITTENDEN --
TorontoJune 6, 1999 Review of MEAN JUSTICE, BY EDWARD HUMES
Most of us tend to think the
American justice system is biased in favour of the accused, right?
Not always, according to this chilling book by Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Edward Humes; a study on the large numbers of innocent
people convicted of crimes because of over-zealous, all-powerful
prosecutors, unscrupulous cops, and judges whose hands are often
tied, even when unmistakable evidence turns up showing innocent
people are languishing in prison.
Humes notes that of approximately
6,000 death sentences imposed between 1973 and 1997, 76 have
been reversed, with a third involving substantial allegations
of police and prosecutorial misconduct. That means one out of
every 80 people sentenced to death in the U.S. in that time has
turned out to be innocent. And the pace has quickened in the
last few years.
To illustrate the problem,
Humes uncovers the story of one man's battle against false evidence
and official misconduct in a community notorious for the number
of innocent people wrongly convicted. It's set in Bakersfield,
California, a town which prides itself on its frontier, tough
on crime mentality, an area settled by 'Okie' immigrants, immortalized
by John Steinbeck in The Grapes Of Wrath.
The story involves an elderly
retired school principal Pat Dunn whose wife Sandy disappeared
on an early morning run, and whom he was later convicted of murdering,
for which he is serving a life sentence without parole.
Humes shows conclusively how
the case was tainted from the start, involving hidden witnesses,
concealed evidence, malicious neighbours, behind the scenes lobbying
by powerful politicians, and false statements by career criminals
in return for deals. Humes notes that in America, the prosecutor
is the single most powerful figure in the justice system and
in all government, for that matter. And if police and prosecutor
gang up on you and decide you are the culprit, instead of searching
for the truth -- look out. (Distican)
Sask
Justice is still in a snit over David Milgaard. They failed to
whitewash their wrong-doing in the case that took 22 years from
his life; now they don't
want to pay him! background.
  From Page A3, Monday, April 19, 1999,
StarPhoenix
Show me my money,
Milgaard complains: Delays in compensation from the Sask. government
taking a toll on his personal life
David Milgaard says he's being
revictimized by the system over delays in receiving compensation
and his mother says she's ready to pitch a tent on the grounds
of the Saskatchewan legislature in frustration.
Milgaard, the man who spent
23 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, told Edmonton
radio station 630 CHED that he's been waiting almost two years
now and just wants to get on with his life.
"Waiting for the compensation
is like another prison sentence. I've been retraumatized,"
Milgaard said in an interview from his home in Vancouver.
"This thing has to be
over. We have to walk away," he added.
In an interview from the Calgary
stop of her book tour, Joyce Milgaard said she has been trying
in vain to talk to Saskatchewan's Justice Minister John Nilson,
about the delay.
"I've heard he is a very
compassionate man but his staff told me it's totally inappropriate
for me to talk to him. It's shades of Kim Campbell all over again."
Milgaard's efforts to free
her son from prison were finally rewarded after she confronted
Campbell, the former federal justice minister, with TV cameras
rolling in 1991.
"We need to have this
finalized so David can get on with his life. That's all we're
asking for," she said Sunday about her latest struggle.
According to Milgaard, her
son's trauma has been worsened watching his 69-year-old father
work through heart problems.
"David knows it's his
dad's pension money that went into fighting for him. He blames
himself, no matter how much we tell him not to blame himself,"
she said.
"I've asked my lawyer
how much trouble I can get into for putting a pup tent on the
grounds of the legislature. I'm very, very serious. If we don't
hear something in the next couple weeks, I'll have no recourse."
David Milgaard, 44, was convicted
of the 1969 rape and murder of Saskatoon nursing assistant Gail
Miller. He was set free in 1992 and exonerated in 1997 following
DNA tests.
The Saskatchewan government
appointed retired Montreal judge Allan Gold in 1997 to negotiate
a compensation package with Milgaard's lawyers.
So far, Milgaard has received
$350,000 in interim payments but he said he's given most of that
money to his family. Milgaard's mother and sister, Susan, say
Saskatchewan Justice received a recommendation from Gold back
in January.
"They're putting him through
more torture now in waiting for a final outcome. There seems
to be no legitimate reason for dragging his feet," Joyce
Milgaard said.
Officials with Saskatchewan's
Justice Department refused comment on the matter.
David Milgaard said his family
members were also victims because they too "went through
hell." Milgaard, now married, said the stress of the wait
has been so acute, it's driven him into therapy. "I'm experiencing
a lot of trauma."
Last September, officials said
they were close to settling the matter.
Experts familiar with the case
have suggested the final compensation figure could reach $5 million
for Milgaard, his parents, two sisters and brother.
That includes money for lost
income, pain and suffering and loss of family life.
David Milgaard is free,
because of the unflagging efforts of his mother, Joyce Milgaard
who refused to quit. The people listed below are still behind
bars and we must all work to help get them out!: Leonard
Peltier Some movement on this front . . .injusticebusters Peltier
page Ray
Gray Michigan's answer to David Milgaard, his defenders are
offering a $50,000 reward to anyone who can spring him from the
life sentence he has been serving since February, 1973 when he
was 21 years old.
A letter campaign for
Patrick Swiney is in the works to the 11th Circuit Court,
asking the court to "just look at the facts in this man's
case." E-mail Taoss
with support. In both these cases, the prisoners have spouses
on the outside working vigorously on their behalf.
Milgaard
talks advance : Lawyer reports progress in weekend meeting
By Murray Mandryk LeaderStar
News
REGINA - They didn't talk numbers, but David
Milgaard's lawyer says some progress toward a final compensation
package for his client from the provincial government was made
during a weekend meeting with former Quebec judge Alan Gold.
"We had a very pleasant meeting," Winnipeg lawyer Hersh
Wolch said Monday, referring to his meeting with the government's
key negotiator.
"We are just going forward.
There's nothing dramatic to report."
He said there was some progress
in discussions of how "appropriate principles of law"
should apply to "critical areas" the two sides must
sort out before reaching a settlement for the 23 years Milgaard
spent behind bars after being convicted of the 1968 murder of
Saskatoon nursing aide Gail Miller.
Milgaard, who was released
from prison in 1992, was exonerated in July 1997 when DNA testing
revealed semen on Miller's clothes was not his.
 A
month later, the Saskatchewan Department of Justice appointed
Gold, a retired Quebec Superior Court judge, to enter into negotiations
with Milgaard and his family to determine compensation.
More than 16 months later,
the two sides are far apart.
Government sources say there's
a tremendous discrepancy between what Milgaard's lawyers are
asking and what the Saskatchewan government is willing to pay.
Sources told LeaderStar News
last week that communications from Milgaard's lawyer's "could
be interpreted" as asking for "tens of millions of
dollars" for Milgaard and his entire family. However, Justice
Department lawyers are arguing the total payout to Milgaard and
family should be in the $4- to $5-million range, sources said.
 Wolch
would not comment on how far apart he and Gold are or whether
these numbers are accurate. Sources also told LeaderStar News
last week there may be some differences of opinion between the
$4- to $5-million payout justice lawyers see as appropriate and
what Gold sees as appropriate.
Wolch said another meeting
with Gold would be held soon, but he would not say when that
meeting is.
This story began on Friday,
Dec. 4.
injusticebusters will have more to say about this .
. . stay tuned.
When
we launched the website in July, 1998, the only article on David
Milgaard was the one reprinted below:
Milgaard: Wrongfully imprisoned
man seeks support from university
by murray genge, The Peak, Simon Fraser University's
Student Newspaper
Volume 91, Issue 3 September
18th, 1995 News
In 1969, at the age of sixteen,
David Milgaard was arrested and later convicted of capital murder
in the rape and murder of Saskatoon resident Gail Miller. Milgaard
has always maintained his innocence and after a long struggle
he was able to convince government officials to have his case
reviewed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Based on "fresh evidence,"
such as a key witness recanting part of his testimony, and the
1970 confession made by Larry Fisher that he committed sexual
assaults against women in Saskatoon around the same time Miller
was raped and killed, a Supreme Court decision on April 14, 1992
concluded that "continued conviction of accused would constitute
miscarriage of justice." The court further related that
"we are satisfied that there has been evidence placed before
us which is reasonably capable of belief, and which taken together
with the evidence adduced at the trial could reasonably be expected
to have affected the verdict. We will therefore be advising the
Minister to quash the conviction and to direct a new trial. .
. "
Justice Minister and Attorney
General for Saskatchewan, Robert Mitchell, later stayed the proceedings
against Milgaard, who was then released on April 16, 1992. However,
Mitchell refused a call for an inquiry into the case.
David Milgaard is now in the
process of lobbying the Saskatchewan government in an attempt
to have a public inquiry into the entire affair. Milgaard is
attempting to organize an event at SFU as part of his ongoing
effort to raise money, and to gain signatures for a petition
that he hopes will pressure the Saskatchewan government to open
an inquiry into his conviction and incarceration of almost 23
years. He hopes to raise money for his campaign to establish
an inquiry by selling a book of poems called Rabbits Paw, For
Bandit Blues, which he compiled while in prison.
Although relieved to be out
of prison, Milgaard is still demanding an inquiry into his conviction,
and in regards to what he feels was an unreasonable amount of
time government officials took to finally allow his case to go
to the Supreme Court. When contacted, Milgaard disclosed that
in order to fully clear his name and to ensure that 'the same
thing doesn't happen to another sixteen year old,' an inquiry
is necessary. Although the 1992 Supreme Court decision stated
that Milgaard ìhad the benefit of a fair trial in January
1970,' and that they were presented with no information that
the police had acted improperly, many of Milgaard's supporters
assert that coercion was used by the Saskatoon police in order
to force witnesses to testify against Milgaard.
Milgaard personally feels that
he has been treated unfairly from the time of his arrest, and
feels that an inquiry would expose the unjust treatment he experienced
from the Saskatchewan justice system. The need for an inquiry
is shared by observers such as Toronto lawyer Brian Greenspan,
president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association. Greenspan has
declared that the Milgaard matter needs to be addressed and that
without an inquiry it would be difficult for Milgaard to achieve
financial compensation.
When asked if his motivation
for a public inquiry was directly related to his hopes of getting
financial compensation, Milgaard reiterated that his main concern
is that the same thing does not happen to another young person.
He further relates that prison is ìa very horrible place
and he does not want to see innocent people incarcerated: "Compensation
is one thing; the people involved are the most important."
Milgaard avoided providing a figure on the financial compensation
he is seeking other than that there can be "no price tag
on what has taken place." He suggested that both he and
his family suffered greatly, both throughout his incarceration
and afterwards.
Although Milgaard seems determined
to lobby the Saskatchewan government until he achieves his goal,
it appears unlikely that an inquiry will ever come to pass. The
NDP government in Saskatchewan is reluctant to call an inquiry.
The official government line is that there is no reason for an
inquiry due to the Supreme Court's conclusion that the original
trial in 1970 was fair. This has lead some critics to suggest
that the government's actions are politically motivated, due
to the possible fear within NDP ranks of dredging up skeletons
from the closet. This accusation is made due the fact that during
the 1970 conviction of Milgaard, the now Premier of Saskatchewan,
Roy Romanow, was serving as the Attorney General. As well, NDP
backbencher Serge Kugawa was a Crown prosecutor who had some
involvement in the Crown's original case; however, the government
strongly denies the accusation that their decision against having
a public inquiry was based on political self interest.
Whatever the result of such
issues as the inquiry, compensation, or accountability, David
Milgaard looks forward to it coming to an end-- "I would
just like to see it all over with at this point."
Lyrics
to Tragically Hip song Wheat Kings
There have
been a startling number of wrongful murder convictions by Canadian
courts. Take a look at these cases as you consider Leon Walchuk:
Robert
Baltovich
| Jason
Dix
| Jody
Druken
| Randy
Druken
| Michel
Dumont
| Clayton
Johnson
| Kulaveeringsam
"Kulam" Karthiresu | Donald Marshall | Chris McCullough | Felix Michaud | Guy Paul Morin | Greg Parsons || Thomas Sophonow | Gary Staples | Steven Truscott | Joe Warren | Leon Walchuk now has
his own website.
For Saskatchewan sentencing practices for proven murders, it
is worth revisiting Pamela
George
See also the case of Leon
Walchuk from Melville, Saskatchewan, whose second degree
murder conviction is before the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.
| The
U.S. Justice Project |
index
to individual injustice stories
| Index to Saskatoon Police
stories
|
