Civics Culminating - David Milgaard (The Wrongful Conviction)

David Milgaard

By: Nishi Shah

CHV2O - Clayden

10.06.11

The Wrongful Conviction

Links with the Outside World

The Trial

David Milgaard was arrested in 1969 for the murder and rape of Gail Miller:

• little soild evidence against Milgaard was found at the scence - DNA samples on Miller's body that the authorities belived originated from Milgaard
• the conviction was mostly based on the testimony of his friends, none of whom confirmed his alibi of that night
• David Milgaard appealed his conviction several times during his imprisonment, but was not considered until 1991

While imprisoned, David Milgaard's unusual conviction sprouted rumours and doubts in the outside world. Though he himself never talked to anyone outside of the federal prison during his sentence, others began contacting him:

• Kim Campbell, federal minister of justice, ordered that a new trial be held against Milgaard based on falsified evidence
• AIDWYC (Association In Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted) also took the Milgaard case into consideration. The DNA samples that were supposedly Milgaard's but found on MIller's body, were sent by AIDWYC to a United Kingdom laboratory, where new tests confirmed that the DNA did not originate from David Milgaard
• this was the basis for ordering a new trial

David Milgaard

The Wrongful Conviction

Case Closed

Innocence Proved

On July 18 of 1997, the U.K. laboratory sent AIDWYC the newly-tested DNA samples found on Miller's clothing, and reported that they belonged to another man. A new trial was run for Milgaard later that year:

• the jury admitted that the 1969 trial was based solely on the testimonies of Milgaard's friends
• the case also received tips from anonymous callers claiming that David Milgaard's friends of that night had lied in court so they could retrieve the $2000 reward money that was waiting for anyone who spoke up about the crime
• the judge released David Milgaard immediately on statements of falisifed evidence and testimonies

Though eventually freed, David Milgaard spent 27 years in a federal prison for a crime he never commited. In 1997, the authorities quickly tracked down that the DNA sample provided by the U.K. laboratory originated from one Larry Fisher, who resided in the same neighbourhood as Gail Miller at the time of the murder, thus proving that David Milgaard had been wrongfully convicted all this time:

• by the year 2000 the government had came to a deal with Milgaard and paid him 10 million dollars of compensation for his wrongful conviction. Yet we still ponder; how will money or even the government ever repay Milgaard for the loss of his young adulthood? The loss of 27 of his prime years?
• in 2008 it seemed Edward MacCallum, an Alberta judge, was thinking the exact same thing; "the criminal justice system failed David Milgaard," he concluded. "From behalf on everyone who assisted in his conviction, we apologize for his wronful conviction. But these things happen; the justice system isn't perfect and we are doing our best to fix it. At least we can be happy that the real killer is off our streets and put behind bars."

That may be true, but no matter what the government says or does, it will never change the fact that they have put not just David Milgaard, but several other innocent people behind bars for crimes they never commited.