A submission presented to the court by Innocence Canada lawyers on Jan. 4 argues that Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie’s 1984 murder convictions were the result of “police tunnel vision, the non-disclosure of important evidence, recantations by the two key Crown witnesses,” and a failure to consider the men’s strong alibis.
The court document outlines the events leading up to the wrongful convictions. According to the summary, the murder victim’s body was found in 1983, and a 16-year-old named John Loeman Jr. signed a statement that he had witnessed Mr. Mailman striking the victim the evening before the body was found. The witness claimed to have been hiding in the woods. Another woman, Janet Shatford, was arrested on Jan. 19, 1984, and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter. She agreed to testify for the Crown against Mr. Mailman and Mr. Gillespie.
The Innocence Canada brief describes how Mr. Mailman and Mr. Gillespie had strong alibis that the police and Crown did not accept. Both men testified that they were repairing a car at the time they were alleged to have committed the murder. The group’s lawyers also describe how the Crown urged the jury to find the alibi was a fabrication, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
The submission also discusses the recantations of the two key witnesses. Innocence Canada says that it happened five times in the case of Loeman, and details how he had given false evidence in court and was coerced by the police. The Saint John Police declined to comment on the case and are waiting to receive a copy of the federal Department of Justice’s review.
The Innocence Canada brief highlights that the Saint John police had provided Loeman with money, in addition to hotel and relocation costs, and argues that this information should have been made available to the defense during the trial. It emphasizes that dealing with recanting witnesses becomes impossible to determine truth from lies without corroboration, and that police and the Crown should have rejected their accounts.