SASKATOON - Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill offered something Monday none of his predecessors have during the long, lamentable history of David Milgaard's wrongful conviction: An apology.

Weighill ''very much regrets the suffering'' Milgaard's endured and the role the police service played in that, said counsel for the police service, Richard Elson, quickly adding, ''This is not an admission of malfeasance or improper or unreasonable conduct.

''But Chief Weighill wants it known that if any practice of the police was inadequate or flawed during the investigation of the murder of Gail Miller and those are still found to exist, the service will act on whatever recommendations are made by the commissioner.''

Monday's hearing marked the 192nd - and final - day of the commission into the miscarriage of justice that put Milgaard behind bars in January 1970 until his conviction was overturned in 1992.

Fourteen speakers were given 30 minutes to make final submissions to commissioner Justice Edward MacCallum.

MacCallum's job is to examine the murder investigation, the prosecution and whether the case should have been reopened in the years after the conviction.

Despite the amount of time - almost two years - and money - $10 million_ spent to find out what went wrong and how to avoid future travesties, on Monday it was charges of zealotry, abusive rhetoric, character assassination, and a ''campaign to take the enemy down'' that outstripped any solutions.

A ''cloud and veil of allegations of misconduct'' have affected the efforts of the inquiry, said Catherine Knox, counsel for Bobs Caldwell, the Crown prosecutor at Milgaard's original trial for the 1969 murder of nursing aide Gail Miller.

That conviction was quashed in 1992 and Milgaard was cleared by DNA evidence in 1997. That evidence was later used to later convict Larry Fisher of the murder.

But in their 81-page submission to MacCallum, lawyers Hersh Wolch and Joanne McLean, who represent David Milgaard and his mother, Joyce, maintained Monday that police and the Crown prosecutor were primarily responsible for David's wrongful conviction.

Lawyers for various police and prosecutors have defended their work and argued their clients made mistakes without malice.

The Milgaard lawyers argued members of the Saskatoon police ''crossed the line from investigating evidence to creating evidence,'' by feeding information and a theory of the crime to teenage witnesses Nichol John and Ronald Wilson.

''The police dealings with EJohn and EWilson in May of 1969 were reprehensible, then and now,'' Milgaard lawyers argued in the report.

Police witnesses said they didn't connect the Fisher sexual assaults to the Miller murder, but Milgaard lawyers point out that when Fisher assaulted his fourth victim - just weeks after Milgaard was convicted - the officers involved in both investigations could not have failed to see the similarities.

Wolch also accused Caldwell of ''serious non-disclosure'' of materials to the defence during the trial. He also suggested Caldwell's pride left him unreceptive to evidence that may have been contrary to his goal of convicting Milgaard.

Despite the fact David Milgaard recanted his criticisms of Caldwell and said the trial was fair, reports to the media by Joyce Milgaard and her counsel, Wolch and David Asper, asserted Caldwell helped cover up the truth and was involved in a ''frame-up,'' noted Cox.

Instead of acknowledging the facts and searching for answers on Milgaard's behalf, Wolch has chosen to ''vilify'' Caldwell in a manner more suited to ''a campaign to take the enemy down,'' Cox said.

''That's not the role of an advocate. That's the role of a zealot. This is a process where zealotry has no place, particularly when it comes out of the mouths of counsel.''

As a result, many in the general public and the legal community will forever remember Caldwell for knowingly prosecuting an innocent man and conspired to keep that innocence a secret, she said.

Donald Sorochan, counsel for Asper, shot back when his turn came.

''The angst they (police and prosecutors) suffered was nothing compared to the many years in prison that Mr. Milgaard suffered. They shouldn't get so sensitive about it,'' he said.

Cox, as well as Elson, expressed regret on behalf of their clients for Milgaard's wrongful imprisonment. Both noted mistakes happen with no intent of malice.

''It is an unfortunate but undeniable reality that in an adversarial system of criminal justice all participants can do their jobs in good faith but nonetheless a wrongful outcome can still occur,'' said Cox.

''Our justice system has been created by mere fallible, mortal human beings and as such, it can never be truly perfect,'' echoed Elson.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix