So I just started a criminology class last week, and one of the books we have to read is "No Claim to Mercy" by Derek Finkle. It's the true story of Robert Baltovich, a Scarborough, Ontario man convicted of killing his girlfriend in 1992. I started reading it and it was so compelling, I finished it two days ago (read it in 5 days). Last week, my prof told us that though his appeal was scheduled for April of this year, there was still no indication of it going forward (he was released on bail in 2000, which is not done often in murder appeals). I devoured this book, and found that there were SO many inconsistencies in the stories that the cops and Crown attorneys put forward, and couldn't believe that he'd been convicted in the first place. Elizabeth Bain's body was never found, and several witnesses saw her with someone completely opposite to Robert's description on the day she'd gone missing. Later evidence showed that infamous "Scarborough Rapist" and murderer Paul Bernardo had links to the missing woman, and she went missing between one of his rapes and his first murder. For anyone who doesn't know the story of Paul Bernardo (ie. those who aren't Canadian), he raped many women, many with the help of his wife Karla Homolka. They were called the "Ken and Barbie" rapes/murders. They even killed Karla's 15 year-old sister while Paul was attempting to rape her, with Karla videotaping the whole thing.

Anyway, I get home from school today, and the first thing on the night's news was a story about how Robert Baltovich's appeal entered it's first day in court today. This man spent over 10 years in prison for a horrible crime that I and many others believe he absolutely didn't commit. It was so chilling to watch this news piece, as I saw in real life all of the "characters" from the book I'd just finished. So many people have supported Robert through this whole thing, convinced of his innocence, even though they don't even know the man. SO much evidence was overlooked, and the police not only railroaded a 25 year-old scared and grieving man, but also failed to disclose important evidence to the defence. He's been waiting for an appeal since he first went to prison, and had to switch attorneys, since his last one strung him along for over 5 years!

Stories like this scare me. Canada has a long and "illustrious" history of wrongful convictions, including Guy Paul Morin (convicted of raping and murdering his 9 year-old neighbour and later being exonerated through DNA), Stephen Truscott convicted in adult court at age 14 of murdering and sexually assaulting a 12 year-old neighbour girl, (he was sentenced to be hanged, but this was changed to life in prison - he spent 10 years in prison, then was let out on probation - the conviction was never overturned, even in the face of evidence that he was not the killer), Donald Marshall a Native Canadian convicted of killing a young woman, and was not allowed a fair trial (he spent 12 years in prison before being acquitted, then, when the real [non-Native] killer was "brought to justice", he spent 1 year in prison for the SAME crime! ), and David Milgaard, convicted of killing and sexually assaulting a young woman (Milgaard spent 22 YEARS in prison for a crime that he didn't commit -- even when Milgaard was let out of prison, the charges were "stayed" and no new trial was allowed, so in the eyes of the public, Milgaard was still a convicted murderer, and he was not allowed compensation for wrongful conviction - later, DNA proved that a local known rapist was responsible for the crime, Milgaard was exonerated and compensated), among others. Among the reasons for these wrongful convictions are: racism, police building evidence around a "suspect", and hence ignoring other evidence to the contrary ("tunnel vision"), circumstantial evidence, jailhouse informants (in MANY of these cases), and non-disclosure of important evidence (either to the police, to the defence, or to the juries. These stories SCARE ME so much. All of the people in these cases could just as easily have been you or me. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, were the "wrong colour", were "weird" people, were uneducated, or were unable to afford an adequate defence. It could've been anyone. Hopefully, with the new technology (ie. DNA) this will occur less frequently...

Anyway, I recommend the book on Robert Baltovich to anyone who's following the story on TV (in Canada anyway, I don't know if it's making news anywhere else), and for info on the other wrongful convictions I mentioned, "Manufacturing Guilt" by Barrie Anderson is wonderful in describing how these travesties occur...