The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/436724
w w w . C a n a D I a n L a w y e r m a g . c o m J a n u a r y 2 0 1 5 25 Wrong law. result. Still good in courTrooms mosT noTorious wrongful convicTions manY cases ThaT resulTed in some of The in canada acTuallY generaTed legal principles or frameworks sTill followed across The counTrY. By Shannon Kari In a brief oral judgment issued in late January 1995, then-chief justice Charles Du- bin of the Ontario Court of Appeal formally entered an acquittal for Guy Paul Morin, ending a decade-long ordeal for the man wrongly convicted in the death of nine-year-old Christine Jes- sop. Fresh evidence, based on new DNA testing, excluded Morin. No jury "properly instructed in the law and acting judicially, could convict Mr. Morin on the charge upon which he stood trial," stated Dubin, in the ruling issued 20 years ago. Aer two trials and nearly two years in custody, Morin was finally cleared of any responsibility in the 1984 rape and murder of Jessop, a crime that remains unsolved. Former Quebec Court of Appeal justice Fred Kaufman headed an inquiry into Morin's pros- ecution and his highly regarded report contained more than 100 recommendations to try to avoid future wrongful convictions. e report is one of the legacies of the Morin case. Another is the Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1988 that upheld a Crown appeal and ordered a new trial for Morin, which ultimately ended with a conviction four years later. In that decision, the Supreme Court agreed with the Ontario Court of Appeal and concluded that the trial judge made errors in his instructions to the jury and overstated the burden of proof for the Crown. e majority decision, written by justice John Sopinka, remains good law today, more than a quarter century later in determining how a trier of fact should assess the evidence in deciding whether the prosecution has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. e Morin case is not an isolated example in Canadian criminal law jurisprudence. e prosecutions of Wilbert Coffin, David Milgaard, Robert Baltovich, Romeo Phillion, Kyle