Keeping track of wrongs made right
A new registry catalogues 83 wrongful convictions, including a number of them from Hamilton
One case turned on lying jailhouse informants.
Another, on cops who buried evidence.
In another, police used a faulty lineup to pit one Indigenous man against a bunch of white guys.
Then there were lawyers and police who refused to do proper DNA testing.
These are Hamilton cases included in the Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions, launched recently by the University of Toronto.
The registry catalogues 83 cases and explains: “We count as a wrongful conviction: cases where a criminal conviction is overturned based on new matters of significance related to guilt not considered when the accused was convicted or pled guilty.”
The project was created by law professor Kent Roach and four alumni — Amanda Carling, Jessie Stirling, Joes Voss and Sarah Harland-Logan. Also involved were William Southam Journalism Fellows.
The registry acknowledges it is not exhaustive. It pulled cases largely from news headlines, but will update and expand the databank in the future.
As well as including synopses of each case, the registry analyses data to capture trends in Canada’s wrongful convictions.
For instance, 18 per cent of the cases were the result of false guilty pleas. Nearly all of those involved accused who were Indigenous, racialized, women or people living with a disability. The pattern shows vulnerable people, who often do not have proper legal counsel, may be at risk of falsely pleading guilty because they believe it will be easier.
In one-third of the registry cases, a crime didn’t even occur. Many of those relate to disgraced Ontario pathologist Dr. Charles Smith, whose shoddy death investigations led to parents being wrongfully convicted of child abuse or murder when no crime took place.
The registry found the leading cause of wrongful convictions was misleading forensic evidence, followed by mistaken eyewitnesses.
The launch of the database ties in with legislation recently introduced by federal Justice Minister David Lametti to create an independent commission to review and investigate claims of wrongful convictions.
Here are the Hamilton cases on the registry: Chris McCullough
McCullough was 22 when he was wrongly convicted of first-degree murder in 1991. He served more than eight years before his conviction was overturned.
On Feb. 13, 1989, school teacher, Beverley Ann Perrin, 55, had been at the hospital visiting her husband who was dying of cancer. She also dropped by a store to buy Valentine’s candy for her students.
Her body was found two days later in a field off Tapleytown Road. She had been sexually assaulted.
Beside her body were two napkins that were sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto but never properly examined.
Her car was found in an underground garage on Granville Avenue.
Hamilton police relied heavily on confidential and jailhouse informants to “solve” the case.
They were led to Terry Pearce, who denied involvement and pointed instead to Steve Clarke. Clarke pointed back at Pearce.
Wiretap interceptions brought up the name Chris McCullough. Under questioning, Pearce named him as the killer. Pearce’s girlfriend backed him up.
McCullough was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
Clarke, meanwhile, changed his story and admitted to being involved, but insisted McCullough was the killer.
Clarke pleaded guilty to forcible confinement and accessory after the fact to murder.
While McCullough was in jail awaiting trial, jailhouse informants told police he confessed to the murder. This set in motion a sting by police. An undercover officer posed as a hitman. McCullough later admitted to asking the hitman to kill Clarke and pleaded guilty to counselling to commit murder. He maintained he didn’t kill Beverley.
Jurors convicted McCullough of second-degree murder.
In 1992, Clarke’s girlfriend told a Hamilton Spectator reporter she lied at McCullough’s trial. She said police offered to help her regain custody of her baby in exchange for her testimony.
McCullough appealed his conviction. In the midst of proceedings at the Court of Appeal, a jailhouse informant also recanted. He said detectives knew his testimony was false but in exchange, they helped him deal with other charges, placed him in the witness protection program and gave him a reward of $8,000.
Also, new DNA evidence from semen on the napkins from the murder scene did not match McCullough or any other suspect.
In January 2000, McCullough’s conviction was overturned and his counselling to commit murder sentence reduced to time served. The Crown did not pursue a new trial.
McCullough sued Hamilton police for $10 million for malicious prosecution, negligent investigation and false imprisonment. He lost in April 2016.
Beverley’s murder remains unsolved.
Gary Staples
Staples was 27 when he was wrongly convicted of second-degree murder in January 1971. He served a year and nine months before his conviction was overturned.
On Dec. 5, 1969, Staples’ car broke down in Dunnville and he got it fixed at a service station.
Meanwhile in Hamilton, cab driver and father of two little boys, Gerald Burke, 24, was shot dead in his taxi. The case went cold until the Ontario Provincial Police arrested Staples’ girlfriend in an unrelated matter. In exchange for favourable treatment, she told police Staples’ had confessed to Burke’s murder.
Staples was arrested, charged and found guilty.
His mother, however, did her own detective work. She found witnesses who corroborated her son’s alibi that he was 50 kilometres away getting his car repaired when the murder happened.
He appealed his conviction, a new trial was ordered and that jury acquitted him.
Wanting a complete exoneration, Staples turned to the Innocence Project where law students work on cases believed to be wrongful convictions.
Helping Staples were unlikely allies — Gerald’s sons. The sons requested and received the police file on their father’s murder. They learned police had two witnesses who saw three men or teens running from the murder seen. In a file memo, police admitted burying the witnesses’ account because it would “confuse a jury.”
Nearly 30 years after his case was overturned, Staples successfully sued Hamilton police for an undisclosed amount and a full public apology.
Gerald’s murder is unsolved.
Jason Hill
Hill was 26 when he was convicted of a string of bank robberies in 1996. He served a year and eight months before his case was overturned.
Between Dec. 16, 1994, and Jan. 23, 1995, 10 bank robberies took place in Hamilton. The robber was dubbed the Plastic Bag Bandit because he always handed a plastic bag to the teller to fill with money.
Witnesses described the bandit as short, clean-shaven, thin, early 20s with dark hair, eyes and skin.
A Crime Stoppers tip implicated Hill who bore some resemblance to the description, but was taller, heavier and had a goatee. Police released a photo of Hill to the media and said he was a suspect.
Detectives organized a photo lineup for witnesses in which Hill was the only Indigenous person among 11 white men.
Meanwhile, another Crime Stoppers tip named a man named Frank as the bank robber.
Hill was arrested and charged with all 10 robberies. Two more plastic bag robberies happened after he was in custody.
Police now looked at a man named Frank Sotomayer as a suspect. Eventually, he was found to be the real bandit. All but one of Hill’s charges were gradually dropped.
Hill was tried on one count. It was learned police made mistakes by interviewing robbery witnesses together and improperly conducting photo lineups.
The jury convicted Hill. He successfully appealed, the Court of Appeal basing its decision on the problems with the photo lineups.
At his second trial, the key witnesses recanted their identification of Hill after seeing photos of Sotomayer.
Hill was acquitted.
He sued Hamilton police for negligent investigation and malicious prosecution. His claims were dismissed and that was upheld at the Court of Appeal for Ontario. He took his lawsuit to the Supreme Court of Canada which, in 2007, upheld that by the standards of the time, the police conducted a proper investigation.
However, the ruling also enshrined in law the right to sue Canadian police for negligence.
Gord Folland
Folland was 42 when he was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in 1995. He served two years and nine months in custody before his conviction was overturned.
In November 1993, Folland and his friend, Shawn Harris, went to the home of a woman with whom Harris was involved. They painted her apartment, then drank.
The men stayed while she took out her hearing aid, took off her glasses and went to bed.
She woke to find a man sexually assaulting her in the dim light. She told him to leave and he did. She came out of the bedroom and said she would call police. Harris said he had been in the bedroom with her.
The woman summoned police and Harris told them he had sexually assaulted the woman while Folland slept on the couch.
But the woman said it was Folland and he was arrested and charged. His DNA did not match the semen from underwear at the scene.
No DNA testing was done on Harris and he did not testify at Folland’s trial.
Folland was convicted of sexual assault.
Two of Folland’s friends met Harris in a bar and collected his spit, which was sent for DNA testing. Harris was the source of the semen.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario overturned Folland’s conviction and ordered a new trial, but the Crown said it would not proceed.
Folland sued the Ontario government. The province agreed to compensate Folland for an undisclosed amount.