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on Fisher | Also: Joyce Milgaard
renews call for public inquiry | January 2005: The
inquiry | New: Blogging RCMP Informants
David Milgaard
malicious prosecution
To protect RCMP snitch
Fisher?
Larry Fisher has long been suspected
of being an RCMP informant. Two women who were raped in North
Battleford were told their rapist had been caught -- and that
it was David Milgaard. Fisher was the real culprit and he was
in custody in Regina. The practice of giving snitches licence
to lie is standard practice for the RCMP who enlist the cooperation
of local police. This licence includes rape and murder. We are
counting on the Milgaard Inquiry to shed more light on this.
The trial of Larry Fisher
DNA
expert links Fisher to murdered woman Newsworld Nov 5,1999 October 22, 1999(below) | October
14 | October 15
| October 16,
| October 19 |
October 20 |
October 21 |
October 22 | October
25 | October 26 1 Nov.
5 | Nov. 17 | 1999 |
This summarizes the case:
Fisher trial slowed by
more legal skirmishes: arguments continue over admissibility
of certain evidence
By Leslie Perreaux, October
1999
YORKTON - The final hours of
the Larry Fisher trial hit a snag Wednesday as lawyers argued
over the last pieces of evidence.
After more possible evidence
today, only closing arguments from the Crown and the defence
remain to be heard, along with instructions from Queen's Bench
Justice Gerry Allbright to the jury. A precise schedule has not
been set.
Fisher, 50, is on trial for
the murder of Gail Miller, a 20-year-old Saskatoon nursing assistant,
in 1969.
He was charged with the crime
in 1997, after DNA tests exonerated David Milgaard and linked
Fisher to the crime.
More than 50 voir dire hearings
have taken place outside the presence of the jury to assess whether
evidence should go before the jury. The main issues presented
by the Crown are:
The Crown has called evidence
that Fisher committed three knife-point rapes around the time
of Miller's death. Two of the women were raped in the same neighbourhood
where Miller's body was found. The Crown says Fisher used the
same method in his attacks as was used by Gail Miller's killer.
DNA samples found in semen
stains on Miller's clothing match DNA from Fisher's blood. The
odds are 950 trillion-to-one that someone other than Fisher left
the semen.
Linda Fisher, Larry Fisher's
ex-wife, identified the suspected murder weapon, a paring knife
with a maroon handle, saying she and her husband bought the knife
in 1968 at a grocery store in Saskatoon. However, the defence
has pointed out that Linda Fisher did not identify the knife
until she came to court in 1998. She failed to identify it on
several occasions, and even expressed relief once that her ex-husband
could not be the killer because she did not recognize the knife.
The main line of defence has
been to question the innocence of Milgaard, who was originally
convicted of the crime and served 23 years in prison.
One defence witness gave a
statement to police in May 1969 saying she saw Milgaard stab
a woman. The same witness gave several other statements that
Milgaard did no such thing. She has since testified several times
that she can't remember anything.
Another witness said he saw
blood on Milgaard's pants. That witness gave a statement in 1992
that he wasn't sure if Milgaard had blood on his pants. His statement
also contradicted by two other witnesses, who said Milgaard did
not have blood on his pants.
The DNA tests in 1997 that
linked Fisher to the crime exonerated Milgaard. The Saskatchewan
government apologized to him, and paid him $10 million in compensation.
The defence has also consistently
attacked the DNA evidence, including the tests that cleared Milgaard.
The defence has particularly questioned the source of the semen
on the dress.
The defence pointed out that
the RCMP laboratory had a sample of Fisher's semen since 1992.
Evidence late last week implied that the semen sample was not
in its original sealed condition.
The defence has also attacked
the credibility of the RCMP scientist who handled the samples.
The scientist lost her Milgaard-Fisher case notes. The defence
has also raised questions about her in other ways, but the exact
nature of those attacks are banned from publication.
The defence has also attacked
the continuity of exhibits, including the dress, pointing out
that any number of people have had access to the exhibits during
most of the past 30 years.
A number of scientists prior
to 1997 examined Miller's dress without finding the large stains
which were used to link Fisher. The defence has suggested that
lends credence to the theory someone used Fisher's sample between
1992 to 1997 to plant the stain.
- Early DNA test failed to implicate Fisher
- Sampling considered too crude to obtain
proper profile, court hears
By Leslie Perreaux, StarPhoenix,
Oct. 22, 1999
YORKTON - One of Canada's early
pioneers in DNA testing found nothing in Gail Miller's clothing
11 years ago to clear David Milgaard or implicate Larry Fisher
in her death, Fisher's murder and rape trial heard Thursday.
Dr. James Ferris examined Miller's
clothing for DNA samples in 1988. His laboratory at Vancouver
General Hospital was among the first in Canada doing research
on DNA profiling.
Ferris said his lab found four
small DNA samples on Miller's undergarments, but the attempts
to profile the DNA were inconclusive.
"We did extract material
which we felt was DNA, but we were not able to do any characterization
of it that would confirm it was human or animal. We knew it was
DNA, that was all," he said.
Miller's stabbed and beaten
body was found in a Saskatoon alley on a frigid morning Jan.
31, 1969.
DNA testing methods almost
20 years later, in 1988, were too crude to obtain a profile from
old, dried-out samples. They also required large samples - at
least 2.5 centimetres in diameter - and relatively fresh samples
to find conclusive results.
A single cell will provide
enough DNA for complete results now, Ferris said.
Methods from 1988 "would
be considered almost a joke now. The science has advanced so
dramatically in the last 10 years, there really is no way to
compare," Ferris said.
Outside court, Ferris said
his lab, which shut down in 1990, was a research facility and
was never intended as a "full-service" laboratory,
where tests are provided for clients.
"The only reason we did
the tests at all was because of immense pressure from Joyce Milgaard,"
David Milgaard's mother, he said.
DNA profiling in 1988 may have
been primitive, but it was cutting-edge compared to the tools
available to Bruce Paynter, a retired RCMP forensic serologist.
Paynter could have examined
the Miller exhibits in March 1969 only by sight, touch and ultraviolet
light. He mainly relied on sight to find most of the semen samples,
he said.
He testified that he found
semen stains on Miller's underwear.
DNA testing didn't exist in
1969. Paynter told the jury he had no tests available to him
which could specifically identify a suspect through his tests.
He simply looked at the stain under a microscope and confirmed
the presence of sperm.
On rare occasions a sample
could be checked for blood type, which could narrow down possible
suspects, he said.
Under cross-examination, Paynter
said he did not find semen stains on any other parts of Miller's
clothing, including her dress or coat.
Defence lawyer Brian Beresh
pointed to a 10-centimetre long sample that was cut from the
dress by scientists in 1997.
He asked Paynter if a semen
stain that large would have been obvious when he examined the
items in 1969.
"I would think so. I would
like to think I would have found it," Paynter said. Crown
prosecutor Dean Sinclair said last week he will call a scientist
who found semen on the dress in 1997.
Sinclair also said he expects
to call expert testimony which will show Fisher's DNA matches
the semen found on the clothing.
Fisher, 50, is charged with
rape and murder in connection with the death of Miller, a 20-year-old
Saskatoon nursing assistant.
David Milgaard was charged
with the crime and convicted in 1970 when he was 17. He was released
following a long crusade by Joyce, 22 years later. In 1997 more
sophisticated DNA test results excluded Milgaard as the man who
deposited semen on Miller's clothing.
The Saskatchewan Department
of Justice apologized to him for his conviction and imprisonment
and, along with the federal government, paid him $10 million
in compensation.
Three of Fisher's victims
describe horrifying attacks
By Leslie Perreaux StarPhoenix,
Oct.25
YORKTON - Larry Fisher put
a knife to a 17-year-old woman's throat and raped her in a back
alley a few months before Gail Miller was attacked in a similar
way in the same area, Fisher's trial heard Monday.
The jury in Fisher's rape and
murder trial heard emotionally wrenching and unusual "similar
act" testimony Monday from three of his victims.
The women - now in their late
40s and early 50s - each faced Fisher and described in devastating
detail how he held a knife to their throats, dragged them into
back alleys, forced them to remove their clothing and raped them.
Fisher's rape spree ended in
1970 when Winnipeg police caught him running from the third victim
with his pants around his ankles.
Fisher committed the first
two rapes within seven blocks of where Miller's body was found
Jan. 31, 1969.
"Helen," the first
woman to testify Monday, was walking from her home at 412 Ave.
D South on Nov. 13, 1968 to her boyfriend's home a few blocks
to the west. Her real identity is protected by court order.
The 17-year-old woman saw Fisher
coming down the street, but from the distance she thought it
was her boyfriend.
Just after Fisher walked past
her, he grabbed her from behind, dragged her into an alley and
forced her to remove her clothing. He then ordered her to lay
on her coat while he forced intercourse upon her.
At first Fisher muffled her
screams with his hand while holding a paring knife or a jackknife
to her throat.
"I was told not to scream,
so I listened," said the first woman. She broke down twice
on the stand. As she regained her composure, her hands trembled
as she sipped water from a Styrofoam cup.
When Fisher was finished he
ran off with most of the woman's clothing. She ran to the nearest
home and knocked on the door.
Fisher's second victim was
raped in an alley near 18th Street and Avenue H. Again he grabbed
her from behind and dragged her into an alley.
He poked at the woman with
a knife and forced her to remove her clothing. Like the first
woman who testified Monday, he told her to lay on her coat before
he raped her.
"He thought he heard a
noise. He figured somebody was coming. He told me not to move,
he'd be right back," she said. She ignored his order and
escaped.
In this case, Fisher cut the
woman with his knife somewhere below her waist. The woman didn't
specify the location of the wound.
The second woman only found
out this spring that Fisher had been arrested and convicted of
her rape. Fisher pleaded guilty and his sentencing for the Saskatoon
crimes was held in a Regina courtroom. His victims were not alerted,
nor were the citizens of Saskatoon, court heard.
Fisher attacked the last victim
in the spree in Winnipeg Sept. 16, 1970. The third woman was
walking home from a bus stop in Winnipeg after a night out with
her boyfriend.
The 18-year-old woman's boyfriend
had offered to accompany her to her home in Winnipeg's south
end. She told him she would be fine and continued alone because
her boyfriend lived at the opposite end of the city.
The woman encountered Fisher
less than a block from her home. After he passed, he grabbed
her from behind and pulled her into a nearby alley with a knife
in his hand.
The woman struggled briefly,
but violently, alerting neighbours to her plight.
As Fisher had intercourse with
her and groped for the knife that had fallen to the ground, police
from the Winnipeg-area municipality of Ft. Garry arrived.
"They literally caught
Larry trying to run away with his pants down," the woman
said with a short burst of nervous laughter.
She read months later in a
local newspaper that Fisher was convicted of her rape.
Fisher's lawyer, Brian Beresh,
briefly cross-examined each witness in a hushed, deferential
tone.
Through the witnesses, he pointed
out that none of the women were seriously stabbed or slashed,
none of the women were raped in extreme cold weather, and none
of the women were robbed. Beresh also pointed out that Fisher
pleaded guilty to the three rapes.
Miller was raped on a -42 degree
day in January. She was stabbed and slashed 27 times. Her coat
was removed before her dress was pulled down around her waist.
Her coat was replaced before her assailant delivered fatal stabs
to her back. A paring knife blade was found at the scene. The
handle was later found in a nearby yard.
Of the three women who testified
Monday, the Winnipeg victim recalled events most clearly and
retained her composure on the stand.
Speaking outside court, she
said her knowledge of Fisher's fate brought her closure 30 years
ago. "My sense of closure came when they caught him and
when he got sentenced. . . . Plus, I've been in therapy for most
of my life."
She glared at Fisher as she
left the stand Monday. She later said seeing him again in person
brought back intense anger. Fisher showed no reaction to her
stare.
Before and after the testimony,
Justice Gerry Allbright gave the jury specific instructions on
how they could use the women's testimony against Fisher.
He said the evidence could
only be used as circumstantial proof of one factor in the Crown's
case - the identity of Gail Miller's assailant. "You must
not use this evidence for the purpose of concluding Mr. Fisher
is simply a bad person who is likely to be guilty of the charge.
You must not use it to reach conclusions on Mr. Fisher's character
or disposition."
Judges don't usually allow
evidence of previous crimes. Allbright said he allowed the evidence
because of apparent similarities between the three rapes and
Miller's case.
Fisher's ex-wife is expected
to testify today.
Fisher's ex-wife suspected
him of murder
Oct 26 1999 CBC
YORKTON, SASK. - Larry Fisher's
former wife took the stand Tuesday at his murder trial in Yorkton,
Sask. Linda Fisher testified that her ex-husband looked guilty
and turned pale when she first accused him of killing Gail Miller,
30 years ago.
Fisher is accused of the 1969
rape and murder of Miller. The body of the Saskatchewan nursing
assistant was found in an alley in Saskatoon. She had been stabbed
a dozen times.
David Milgaard was wrongfully
convicted of the murder and spent 23 years in jail. He was exonerated
in 1997 after DNA evidence showed that semen found at the crime
scene didn't match his.
Linda Fisher testified that
on the morning of the murder, she and her former husband had
an argument. She said they heard about the rape and stabbing
of a nursing assistant over the radio. During the dispute, she
looked at Fisher and said "you probably killed that girl
because I can't find my paring knife."
She testified that he suddenly
turned pale, his hands dropped and he "had a guilty look
on his face."
On the stand Tuesday, when
Linda Fisher was asked to examine the knife blade found under
Miller's body, and the handle found nearby, she positively identified
it as the one that had gone missing from her kitchen.
Asked why she didn't go to
the police until 11 years later, Fisher said she simply didn't
make the connection between her knife and Miller's murder.
On Monday jurors heard testimony
from three women he had raped in the late 1960s and early '70s.
This kind of testimony isn't
usually permitted in trials, but the judge ruled that its value
in establishing the facts outweighed its potential prejudice
to the defence.
Fisher had pleaded guilty to
all three rapes the jury heard about Monday and had been sentenced
to prison.
Milgaard's semen not
on dress, says scientist
By Leslie Perreaux
YORKTON - David Milgaard could
not have produced sperm found on Gail Miller's dress and underpants,
a British scientist testified Thursday.
Michael Barber, a scientist
from a government forensic laboratory in Weatherby, England,
compared DNA from Milgaard's blood sample to semen stains on
Miller's clothing in 1997.
"It did not match. No,
the donor of that sample cannot be the source of the semen that
we tested," Barber told the court.
Barber's tests led to the Saskatchewan
government clearing Milgaard of Miller's murder and rape in 1997.
He had served 23 years in prison for the crime before being released
in 1992 by the Supreme Court.
The defence in Larry Fisher's
rape and murder trial has repeatedly raised Milgaard as a possible
alternative suspect in the killing of Gail Miller in 1969. Defence
lawyer Brian Beresh has suggested that Milgaard was never eliminated
as the murderer.
"You will hear that there
is evidence Mr. Milgaard was eliminated as a suspect. That did
not occur, he was not eliminated," Beresh told the jury
at the beginning of the trial. He also said no Canadian lab has
ever exonerated Milgaard.
At least part of the reason,
court has heard over the first month of Fisher's trial, is that
Canadian labs could not find the large semen stains discovered
and tested by Barber in England. Two DNA tests conducted in 1988
and 1992 failed to produce results because the samples found
in Canadian labs were too tiny.
Barber testified that he used
newer DNA testing methods in 1997 that use smaller parts of the
DNA molecule, producing better results from smaller samples.
Those are the tests that finally
excluded Milgaard as the source of semen stains on Miller's clothing.
Beresh began his cross-examination
of Barber by raising the case of Dr. John Schneeberger, the infamous
Saskatchewan doctor who admitted to putting a tube in his arm
in order to provide police with a phony blood sample.
Beresh asked Barber if "that
sort of trickery" would affect the results of DNA tests
from blood samples given by Milgaard.
"Clearly if the blood
drawn wasn't your own blood, it would (affect results) but we
don't take samples ourselves. We always get samples from others
with labels on them," Barber answered.
As he cross-examined Barber,
Beresh further pursued the theory Milgaard was involved in Miller's
attack, pointing out that small, inconclusive semen stains, hair
samples and a vaginal swab from Miller that disappeared decades
ago, were not tested and did not exclude Milgaard.
"You don't know if those
samples belonged to John Smith, John Doe or anybody else,"
Beresh said.
Beresh also listed all of the
scientists who have examined the Miller exhibits, taken samples
and conducted tests. Barber admitted he never contacted the scientists
to get a complete case history of Miller's clothing since it
was removed from her body in 1969.
Beresh questioned why Barber
found the stains when two Canadian RCMP serologists missed them.
"Trained serologists would
not miss a stain that large," Beresh said.
The Canadian serologists testified
that they mainly relied on visual methods to examine the garments,
along with random chemical tests on small areas.
Barber said he couldn't see
the semen stains either. He used a chemical reaction test on
"every inch" of Miller's clothing to find the stains,
he said.
DNA expert links Fisher
to murdered woman
Newsworld Nov 5, 1999
YORKTON, SASK. - A DNA expert
testified at the trial of Larry Fisher Friday that the chance
of someone else's semen being on the clothes of the woman Fisher
is accused of killing are one in 950 trillion.
"The mathematical possibility
we would find two unrelated people who have a profile match in
this way is extremely small," said Anne-Elizabeth Charland,
an RCMP DNA expert in Ottawa.
She called this finding "extremely
significant."
Fisher, 50, has been charged
with the rape and murder of Gail Miller, a 20-year-old nurses'
aide found dead in a snowbank in Saskatoon in 1969. David Milgaard
was charged and convicted of the crime, spent 23 years in prison,
but was exonerated as the result of DNA tests.
Charland testified she found
male DNA on clothes worn by Miller that matched Fisher's DNA
conclusively.
Crown rebuts implication
Milgaard stabbed Miller: Witness says he saw no blood on Milgaard's
clothes on morning nurse died
By Leslie Perreaux
YORKTON - Around the time Gail
Miller was killed in a Saskatoon alley, David Milgaard was chatting
normally seven blocks away with Walter Danchuk, helping him push
his red 1964 convertible out of a snow bank.
Danchuk, a resident of Avenue
T South who was trying to drive his wife to work on Jan. 31,
1969, testified Tuesday at Larry Fisher's murder trial that Milgaard
looked normal, showing no signs of blood or a recent struggle
during two hours of conversation and waiting.
The evidence at Fisher's trial
drew near an end Tuesday with the Crown calling three witnesses
in defence of Milgaard.
The defence ended its case
Tuesday afternoon just before the Crown called rebuttal witnesses.
Rebuttal evidence is somewhat unusual, but the Crown was countering
the defence's implication that Milgaard killed Miller.
Court has heard Miller usually
left her home around 6:45 a.m. to catch a 7 a.m. bus to work
at City Hospital. Her frozen body was found around 8:20 a.m.
Milgaard's friend at the time,
Nichol John, has been the source of contradictory evidence that
she saw Milgaard stab a girl in an alley near Avenue O after
their car got stuck in snow. She also gave several statements
that nothing unusual happened that morning.
John gave her incriminating
statement once in 1969, two months after Miller's death. She
never recalled or repeated the story before or after giving the
statement.
Around 6:50 a.m., right around
the time Miller should have been catching her bus, Margaret Lennox
was peering out her front window looking for the taxi that was
due at 6:55 a.m.
The taxi pulled up a car length
from where Milgaard's car was supposedly stuck at the time. Lennox
was also a few hundred feet from where Milgaard supposedly grabbed
and stabbed the girl.
Lennox testified Tuesday that
she saw no car and no people in the alley during the several
minutes she spent looking out her window. She couldn't see the
spot where Miller's body was found.
Twenty-five minutes after Lennox
caught her taxi - at about 7:20 a.m. - and about six blocks away,
Milgaard, John and their friend Ron Wilson came across Danchuk's
stuck vehicle.
The trio stopped to help Danchuk
extricate the car, but both cars ended up stalled in the alley
in the -40 C weather.
About 30 to 45 minutes later,
Danchuk gave Milgaard and his friends a ride to a nearby garage.
Danchuk said Milgaard and his
friends had no blood on them, contradicting defence evidence
from a witness who was five years old in 1969.
They finally parted company
around 9:30 a.m., after the trio returned to get their car. Danchuk
said Milgaard got $12 from John to pay the tow truck driver.
Danchuk had great difficulty
remembering details from the incident in 1969. Most of his testimony
was recalled from a statement he gave to police at the time.
The trial continues today.
Lid put on Fisher evidence:
Judge tosses lawyer's efforts to allow media to release details
By Leslie Perreaux
YORKTON - The judge in the
Larry Fisher murder trial has permanently banned the media from
publishing the last pieces of evidence from Fisher's defence
case.
The evidence deals with an
RCMP scientist who controlled Gail Miller's dress and a sample
of Fisher's semen for seven years. Fisher, 50, is on trial for
the 1969 rape and murder of Miller, a 20-year-old nursing assistant
in Saskatoon.
As the defence case rested
Tuesday, final witnesses were called to advance the theory that
RCMP serologist Patricia Alain may have put semen from Fisher's
sample on Gail Miller's clothing.
This week, the defence has
pointed to the period between 1992 and 1999 when Alain handled
both Fisher's semen and Miller's clothing. The testimony of two
doctors who were among the final defence witnesses was banned
from publication. Alain has a medical condition which has kept
her from testifying at Fisher's trial.
Queen's Bench Justice Gerry
Allbright banned any details from the doctors' testimony from
ever being published.
"The jury will have heard
this evidence, (it's) not deprived of the ability to use that
information," Allbright said. "It's an unusual order
and it's an order that must be made only in exceptional circumstances."
Grant Currie, lawyer for The
StarPhoenix, the National Post and the CBC, asked the judge to
set aside the ban Tuesday morning, arguing the public has a right
to know all the evidence that goes before Fisher's jury.
Allbright rejected his arguments.
The newspapers and the CBC will now decide if they will appeal
the decision.
Fisher gave blood, hair, saliva,
urine and semen samples in 1992 controlled by Alain until 1999.
Alain lost her notes on the
case during that period. She also failed to find large semen
stains on Miller's dress in 1992 that were later discovered by
a British scientist. The search she conducted in 1992 was the
first case work she had done since 1989, when she took on an
administrative role.
In sworn evidence she gave
in 1998, Alain testified that she never even opened Fisher's
semen case. She said she forwarded two blood samples taken at
the same time for the DNA tests which followed.
The doctor who originally took
Fisher's sample and handed it to Alain testified Monday that
one of two pieces of tape he used to seal Fisher's semen container
was missing.
Dr. Peter Davison carefully
examined the container in court Monday and said the container
still appears to be sealed despite the missing tape.
A British lab found a semen
stain the size of a softball on Miller's dress in 1997 during
the time Alain was in charge of both the dress and Fisher's semen
sample. Subsequent DNA tests matched Fisher's blood to the semen
on the dress. The odds are 950 trillion-to-one that the semen
did not belong to Fisher.
DNA tests around the same time
were used to exonerate David Milgaard, who spent 23 years in
prison for Miller's murder.
Milgaard's DNA didn't match
the semen on Miller's dress.
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