Innocence Canada

Last updated
Innocence Canada
Formation1993
TypeLegal Association
Legal statusActive
PurposeAdvocate, Educator and Network
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario
Region served
Canada
Official language
English
French
Budget
$500,000 to $600,000 annually
Website www.innocencecanada.com
Formerly called
Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC)

Innocence Canada (formerly known as the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, AIDWYC), is a Canadian, non-profit legal organization. Based in Toronto, Innocence Canada identifies, advocates for, and helps exonerate individuals who have been convicted of a serious crime which they did not commit and to preventing future wrongful convictions through education and justice system reform.

Contents

Founded in 1993 out of the volunteer network that helped exonerate Guy Paul Morin, Innocence Canada has been involved in twenty-one of twenty-six exonerations in Canadian history, including other high-profile cases such as those involving David Milgaard, Steven Truscott, Roméo Phillion, and several victims of disgraced pathologist Charles Smith.

History

Innocence Canada was founded in February 1993 as the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) by a group of volunteers who organized the Justice for Guy Paul Morin Committee after Morin's 1992 wrongful conviction. Founded the same month that Morin was released on bail pending appeal, the AIDWYC decided to broaden its mandate. [1] [2] [3]

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was wrongly convicted in the United States, served as executive director of AIDWYC for over a decade until resigning in 2005. [4]

In 2009, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted received a one million dollar donation from Ian Cartwright, a retired judge from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. [2] [5] It also set up the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted Foundation, a registered charity, in July 2010. [6] The grant led to AIDWYC establishing a legal education program on wrongful convictions for groups such as police, law school students, and prisoners. [7]

By Fall 2016, the funding from the Cartwright grant began to dry up. [7] In September 2016, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted was denied $250,000 a year funding from the federal government. [5] In the same month, it announced that due to lack of funds, it would have to stop taking on new cases, lay off staff, and move out of its downtown Toronto office. [2] [8] At the time, it had a backlog of 85 cases, 16 of which were deemed likely wrongful convictions by Innocence Canada's staff, including three convicted using expert testimony of disgraced pathologist Charles Smith. [2]

In October 2016, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted rebranded as Innocence Canada, and adopted a new logo consisting of 21 tally marks, one for each of the exonerations they were involved in. [7]

In December 2016, Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi announced that the Ontario government would provide $825,000 in funding over three years, while the Law Society of Ontario would add another $75,000 over the same time period. [9] Despite this funding, Innocence Canada still projected a $150,000 per year shortfall which it hoped to make up through charitable donations. [8] Other funding includes a decade of $230,000 annual donations from the Law Foundation of Ontario, which pledged to continue this funding and add funds for future legal education programs by Innocence Canada. [5]

Notable cases

Cases that Innocence Canada has been involved in include those of David Milgaard, Guy Paul Morin, Robert Baltovich, Steven Truscott, Nerissa and Odelia Quewezance, seven victims of the disgraced pediatric forensic pathologist Charles Smith, [2] Roméo Phillion, [8] and Thomas Sophonow. [10] It also worked on the case of Anthony Hanemaayer, who had been convicted for a crime actually committed by serial rapist and killer Paul Bernardo, whose confession had not been passed on to Hanemaayer. [11] It has been involved in twenty-one exonerations in Canadian history. [2] [5] Many other people in Canada have by themselves or with the help of a lawyer put substantial evidence on the record on appeal of through the conviction review process that resulted in a new trial being ordered that many would consider to have been "exonerated".

Work

Applications to Innocence Canada can be made by the convicted person or another interested party and/or through the recommendation of a lawyer. [12] In addition, Innocence Canada has been invited to provide expertise to several public inquiries related to cases or causes of wrongful convictions in Canada. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Finally, Innocence Canada offers accredited Continuing Professional Development (CPD) educational seminars for Canadian lawyers in an effort to prevent future wrongful convictions. Innocence Canada is also working to increase the number of educational opportunities for the public, members of police services and the judiciary on issues related to the prevention of wrongful convictions. [7] [19]

Innocence Canada is a member of the Innocence Network, a collective of organizations dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to individuals who have been wrongly convicted and to preventing wrongful convictions. The Network is composed of innocence organizations across the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Ireland. [20]

Innocence Canada estimates that it receives 3.5 million dollars worth of pro bono legal work from Canadian lawyers each year. [8] It has an annual budget of $500,000 to $600,000, much of which is used to pay for expert witnesses and lab tests. Each case roughly takes eight to nine years to see to completion. [5]

Of the Spectrum of cases where wrongful conviction is alleged; the classic who done it cases, or where the accused says they were there but death was accidental or natural causes, she said he said or cases where the conviction was based on a witness who claimed to be there and witness the alleged crime, cases where innocence is claimed because of self defense it is currently unclear from their web site if any type are excluded from consideration from Innocence Canada as of May 2022 [21]

Other innocence project organizations such as Centurion Ministries in the United States make it clear they will not take on some of these types of cases where wrongful conviction is alleged; "We do not take on accidental death, self defense cases, or cases where the defendant had any involvement whatsoever in the crime for which he/she was convicted." [22] The University of British Columbia Innocence Project makes it clear they will not take on so called he said she said cases where the accuser is not currently recanting; "Please note that the UBC Innocence Project will NOT consider convictions of sexual assault where the issue at trial was credibility and there is no new and significant evidence to rebut the credibility finding made at trial (i.e. a known, reliable recantation by the complainant)." [23] It remains to be seen if Innocence Canada will represent people claiming wrongful conviction in the entire spectrum of types of cases. However, as of May 2022 due to resource limitations the organization is only currently accepting applications for homicide review. [24]

Related Research Articles

Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The group cites various studies estimating that in the United States between 2.3% and 10% of all prisoners are innocent. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who gained national attention in the mid-1990s as part of the "Dream Team" of lawyers who formed part of the defense in the O. J. Simpson murder case.

David Milgaard was a Canadian man who was wrongfully convicted for the 1969 rape and murder of nursing student Gail Miller in Saskatoon and imprisoned for 23 years. He was eventually released and exonerated. Up until his death, he lived in Alberta and was employed as a community support worker. Milgaard was also a public speaker who advocated for the wrongfully convicted and for all prisoners' rights.

Guy Paul Morin is a Canadian who was wrongly convicted of the October 1984 rape and murder of his nine-year-old next-door neighbour, Christine Jessop of Queensville, north of Toronto, Ontario. DNA testing led to a subsequent overturning of this verdict. On October 15, 2020, the Toronto Police Service announced a DNA match identifying Calvin Hoover as the one whose semen was recovered from Jessop’s underwear. Hoover killed himself in 2015.

A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent people have sometimes ended up in prison for years before their conviction has eventually been overturned. They may be exonerated if new evidence comes to light or it is determined that the police or prosecutor committed some kind of misconduct at the original trial. In some jurisdictions this leads to the payment of compensation.

Hersh Wolch was a prominent Canadian lawyer, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

James Lockyer is a lawyer and a prominent social justice activist in Toronto, Canada. He is a founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC). He has been involved in exposing more than ten wrongful convictions in Canada, including the cases of Guy Paul Morin, David Milgaard, Clayton Johnson and Gregory Parsons. Several of these cases have become the subject of public inquiries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Neufeld</span> American attorney

Peter J. Neufeld is an American lawyer, cofounder, with Barry Scheck, of the Innocence Project, and a founding partner in the civil rights law firm Neufeld Scheck & Brustin. Starting from his earliest years as an attorney representing clients at New York's Legal Aid Society, and teaching trial advocacy at Fordham School of Law from 1988 to 1991, he has focused on civil rights and the intersection of science and criminal justice.

Exoneration occurs when the conviction for a crime is reversed, either through demonstration of innocence, a flaw in the conviction, or otherwise. Attempts to exonerate convicts are particularly controversial in death penalty cases, especially where new evidence is put forth after the execution has taken place. The transitive verb, "to exonerate" can also mean to informally absolve one from blame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz Moen</span> Norwegian victim of miscarriage of justice

Fritz Yngvar Moen was a Norwegian man wrongfully convicted of two distinct murders, serving a total of 18 years in prison. After the convictions were quashed, an official inquiry was instigated to establish what had gone wrong in the authorities' handling of the case, and on 25 June 2007 the commission delivered harsh criticism to the police, the prosecution and the courts in what was immediately termed Norway's worst miscarriage of justice of all time.

Charles Randal Smith is a former Canadian pathologist known for performing flawed child autopsies that resulted in wrongful convictions.

The Innocence Network is an affiliation of organizations dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to individuals seeking to prove innocence of crimes for which they have been convicted and working to redress the causes of wrongful convictions. Most organizations involved are in the United States, covering all 50 states; however, the network includes organizations in Canada, Australia, and the UK.

Roméo Phillion was convicted of the 1967 murder of Ottawa firefighter Léopold Roy, after making a confession to police which he recanted two hours later.

The Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin—known as the Kaufman Commission or the Morin Inquiry—was a 1996 royal commission appointed by the Government of Ontario to address the wrongful conviction in 1992 of Guy Paul Morin for the murder of Christine Jessop on 3 October 1984, for which he was exonerated by DNA evidence on 23 January 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Greenspan</span> Canadian lawyer (born 1947)

Brian H. Greenspan, is a Canadian lawyer. He is one of the most prominent and respected defence lawyers in Canada.

Centurion is a non-profit organization located in Princeton, New Jersey, with a mission to exonerate innocent individuals who have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to life sentences or death.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheilah Martin</span> Canadian judge

Sheilah L. Martin is a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, having served in that role since December 18, 2017. She was nominated to the court by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on November 29, 2017. Before her appointment to Canada's highest court, Martin had served on the Court of Appeal of Alberta, the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories, and the Court of Appeal of Nunavut since 2016, and the Court of King's Bench of Alberta from 2005 to 2016. Martin is considered an expert in judicial ethics.

Anthony Joseph Dolff, was farmer in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada, who was killed in 1993. He was stabbed 17 times, hit on the head with a television, and strangled with a telephone cord. Three Saulteaux people, members of the Keeseekoose First Nation, were convicted of the crime. One, Jason Keshane, 14 years old at the time of the crime, confessed to the killing and as a juvenile was sentenced to two years in prison for second degree murder. His cousins, sisters Nerissa and Odelia Quewezance, 19 and 21 at the time, were sentenced to life in prison. Neither confessed and both have maintained their innocence at all times. Dolff had been a maintenance man at the residential school the two sisters attended. That night they reportedly drank a great deal of liquor and took prescription sleeping pills at Dolff's house, where he pestered them for sex. When he discovered that Odelia had taken money from his bedroom, a violent confrontation took place, in the course of which he was killed.

References

  1. ↑ Wahrer, Win (June 18, 2018). "Rule of Law Report | Issue 2 | LexisNexis Canada". www.lexisnexis.ca. Lexis Nexis . Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gillis, Wendy (October 21, 2016). "Innocence Canada becoming 'shadow of its former self'". Toronto Star . Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  3. ↑ Campbell, Kathryn M. (2018). Miscarriages of Justice in Canada: Causes, Responses, Remedies. University of Toronto Press. p. 256. ISBN   9780802094063.
  4. ↑ "Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter and the virtue of stubbornness". The Globe and Mail . April 21, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Gibson, Victoria (December 13, 2016). "Innocence Canada wins funding from Ontario, law society". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Funding - Innocence Canada". Innocence Canada. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Andrew-Gee, Eric (October 21, 2016). "Circumstances are 'dire' for Canada's defender of the wrongfully convicted". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Perkel, Colin (December 13, 2016). "Innocence Canada gets critical funding in fight for the wrongfully convicted". CityNews Toronto . Canadian Press . Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  9. ↑ McGillivray, Kate (December 13, 2016). "Innocence Canada gets $900K from Ontario, law society for 'vital' work". CBC News . Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Justice denied: 5 times Indigenous people were wrongfully convicted in Canada". CBC News . April 30, 2016. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  11. ↑ Tyler, Tracy (June 26, 2008). "Acquitted man demands justice reforms". Toronto Star . Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Are You Innocent? - Innocence Canada". Innocence Canada. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  13. ↑ "Report of the Kaufman Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin - Ministry of the Attorney General". www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca.
  14. ↑ "Home - Commission of Inquiry Into Certain Aspects of the Trial and Conviction of James Driskell". www.driskellinquiry.ca.
  15. ↑ "Province of Manitoba | Manitoba Justice | Publications | Thomas Sophonow Inquiry". Archived from the original on 2014-03-12. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  16. ↑ www.AUTCON.net. "Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario - Home Page". www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca.
  17. ↑ "Commission of Inquiry into the Wrongful Conviction of David Milgaard". Archived from the original on 2014-06-03. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  18. ↑ http://www.justice.gov.nl.ca/just/publications/lamercontents.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  19. ↑ "Continuing Legal Education - Innocence Canada". Innocence Canada. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  20. ↑ "Innocence Network: Member Organizations".
  21. ↑ "Home". innocencecanada.com.
  22. ↑ "Submit a Case – Centurion".
  23. ↑ "Request Help | Peter A. Allard School of Law".
  24. ↑ "Are You Innocent?".
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