Convicted murderer seeking release today
Justice minister to review case Man imprisoned for past 12 1⁄ years 2
When William Mullins- Johnson walks into a Toronto courtroom this morning, all eyes will be on Ken Campbell, a lawyer in Attorney General Michael Bryant’s office.
Mullins- Johnson, 34, has been in prison for 121⁄ years, after being convicted of murdering his 4- year- old niece Valin, who died on June 27, 1993. He is asking Superior Court Justice David Watt to free him pending a review of his case by Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, who has the power to quash his conviction and order a new trial or an appeal.
His application is based on recent independent reports that show that Valin was not sexually abused and strangled, as pathologists and medical practitioners had testified at his trial, but died a natural death.
Today’s court proceeding has been scheduled to set a date for Mullins- Johnson’s bail hearing. But the question in the minds of those in court will be whether Campbell will agree to MullinsJohnson’s immediate release from custody based on the report of Dr. Michael Pollanen, a senior official in the Ontario Chief Coroner’s office. Pollanen has concluded that no crime occurred, an opinion supported by an internationally renowned Welsh pathologist.
Campbell is playing his cards tight to his chest. A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said yesterday there would be no comment until the case is dealt with in court. Meanwhile, lawyer James Lockyer, who is representing Mullins- Johnson along with lawyer David Bayliss on behalf of the Toronto- based Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted ( AIDWYC), said justice department officials have decided that an investigation is warranted.
“ I was informed yesterday that that they have completed their preliminary investigation of his application and have decided that his case will proceed to an investigation by the minister,” he said.
Lockyer said he was pleased that Cotler had responded “ so quickly” to Mullins- Johnson’s application, which was filed only seven days ago.
Kerry Scullion, senior counsel for the justice department investigation team, said yesterday that the only other application for a ministerial review based on a claim of a non- existent murder involved Clayton Johnson of Nova Scotia. Johnson was convicted of murdering his wife Janice in 1993, after two pathologists and a medical examiner testified that her head injuries were consistent with an attack with a weapon such as a baseball bat. Anne McLellan, the justice minister at the time, referred the case to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 1998 after Johnson’s wife’s body was exhumed for examination by an international group of pathologists. A majority of them concluded that the death was accidental. Four years later the court quashed the appeal and ordered a new trial — and prosecutors asked the province’s highest court to enter an acquittal.
Johnson, who was also assisted by the association, spent five years in prison before being exonerated.