That was the message from the lawyer for the Saskatoon Police Service, speaking on the final day of the commission of inquiry into the miscarriage of justice that put Milgaard behind bars in January 1970.

Weighill "very much regrets the suffering" Milgaard has endured and the role the police service played in that, said police service lawyer 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. Fourteen speakers representing individuals, agencies and the federal and provincial governments were given 30 minutes to provide verbal submissions to inquiry Commissioner Justice Edward MacCallum.

Despite the amount of time 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 Miller. Milgaard's conviction was quashed in 1992 and he was cleared by DNA evidence in 1997.

That DNA evidence, used to later convict Larry Fisher of the murder, was taken from exhibits preserved for 28 years by Caldwell, Knox said. Yet it is he, along with members of the Saskatoon Police Service, RCMP and Saskatchewan Justice, who have long been accused of malice by Milgaard's mother, Joyce, and the family's lawyers.

After nearly two years of testimony and fact finding, those claims should have been abandoned, but have not, said Knox, who was left "shaking her head" several times Monday over submissions by David Milgaard's lawyer. Hersh Wolch 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.

"It's a difficult combination when you have an ego that is proud of the case and tunnel vision. It's ego trip down a tunnel," Wolch told MacCallum.

Despite the fact 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 Knox.

"The allegations against Caldwell are not borne out by the evidence. Absolute truth and integrity are the hallmarks of the work he did for the Crown," she said.

Instead of acknowledging the facts and searching for answers on Milgaard's behalf, Wolch has chosen to "vilify" Caldwell through "character assassination" in a manner that is more suited to "a campaign to take the enemy down," Knox 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."

She denounced Milgaard's advocates for becoming that which they accuse police and Crown counsel of being -- blinded by tunnel vision and assigning blame when it contradicts the facts. Caldwell has been accused of withholding evidence from Milgaard's defence counsel, Calvin Tallis.

Knox said Caldwell advised Tallis on evidence he received. There were times when he reviewed the lengthy reports from the police -- who canvassed many people about the incidents of the morning Miller was murdered -- and may have decided Tallis wouldn't be interested.

Still, Caldwell made his files readily available to anyone who asked, "even though the practice of the Crown was not to provide copies to defence counsel in those days.

"If Mr. Caldwell had been engaged in a deliberate suppression of evidence, why on earth would he have kept this documentation in his file?" Knox said.

But the damage to his reputation from "baseless" attacks by those in the Milgaard camp have ensured Caldwell will be remembered by many in the public and the legal profession for prosecuting an innocent man and conspiring 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, adding criticism of advocates doing their duty should be discouraged, as it may impede others in the future from doing so.

Though her written submission to MacCallum contained no recommendations to be forwarded to the provincial minister of justice, Knox offered a verbal one.

She suggested any counsel continuing to make accusations while a matter is still under review by an inquiry should be made a witness to answer to their claims.

Knox, as well as Elson, expressed regret on behalf of their clients for Milgaard's wrongful imprisonment. Both noted mistakes happen without 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. It falls short of the often grandiose claims of misconduct, dishonesty and conspiracy," said Knox.

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

Milgaard was convicted because there was much evidence against him, plain and simple, said Aaron Fox, counsel for retired police officer Eddie Karst, who investigated the murder.

"He was charged because of testimonies given and circumstantial coincidences. Were the problems with the statements (of some witnesses) obvious? I think perhaps they were, but they were out there for everyone at the trial."

Karst was a relatively junior detective under the direction and supervision of senior officers. He did not determine the direction of the investigation nor the prosecution of Milgaard, Fox noted. But he was thrust into the thick of things when Albert Cadrain walked into the police department claiming he knew the killer. Milgaard, who visited Cadrain's house, had blood on his clothes on the same day Miller was murdered, Cadrain said.

Karst was then sent to Winnipeg nine months after Milgaard's conviction to interview Fisher, who had confessed to several rapes in Saskatoon. Fisher resided in the basement of Cadrain's house when Miller was killed -- and where a trail of Miller's belongings led -- but as far as Karst was concerned, this was a separate matter.

"From Karst's perspective, Fisher was a rapist, not a murderer. I'm not sure what more you would expect Det. Karst to do at that time," said Fox.

Even Joyce Milgaard didn't make the connection to Fisher and she had all of the same information, he added.

"I'm not suggesting Joyce and the people working for her should have made the connection. They were amateurs at that time. But when she firmly believed her son was innocent and someone else responsible, she didn't see it either.

"It has been suggested now that was an obvious connection. It wasn't then."

Eugene Williams, the federal government lawyer who investigated Milgaard's application for mercy between 1988 and 1992, did his work in a thorough, comprehensive and objective manner, said his lawyer, Ken McLeod.

While he has been criticized for testing the evidence he gathered, he was expected to forward to the minister of justice evidence that was "reasonably capable of being believed," McLeod said. Williams's records were complete and fair, McLeod said.

Fisher's lawyer, Eamon O'Keefe, said while Fisher has always denied he killed Gail Miller, he never did anything to implicate Milgaard. Fisher gave his true name and address when questioned at the bus stop days after the murder and didn't move away or stop using the bus after that, O'Keefe said.

Fisher agreed to plead guilty to four Saskatoon sexual offences but he didn't have anything to do with any delay in bringing those matters to court, nor did he have any role in choosing Regina as the location for the plea, O'Keefe said.

David Frayer, who represented the federal Justice Department, noted the commission does not have a mandate to review the federal process for reviewing cases of wrongful convictions.

The "mercy provisions" have changed substantially since Milgaard's applications were made and the minister of justice did not ask for any witnesses to be called to speak to the current conviction review process, Frayer stated in written submissions.

The commission didn't hear enough evidence about the day-to-day workings of the process to make recommendations about it, he said.

Federal justice department staff worked diligently and conscientiously and never took the matter lightly, he said. It was the justice minister's staff who assumed the responsibility of having DNA testing done after the Supreme Court hearing in 1992. Much of the two-year delay was caused by negotiations with Milgaard's lawyer over what type of testing would be best, Frayer noted.

The final submission was made by Lana Krogan-Stevely, on behalf of Saskatchewan Justice, who noted the inquiry itself was called by the provincial government in its desire to find out how and why an innocent man was prosecuted, convicted and spent 23 years in custody for an offence he didn't commit. The Miller murder was re-investigated three times and each investigation found evidence to support the conviction and a lack of evidence linking Fisher to the murder.

"The similar-fact evidence itself did not withstand the scrutiny of Saskatchewan officials who were of the view that the details of the Miller offence were not sufficiently similar to Larry Fisher's other offences to be of assistance either to the Crown or defence in a trial," she said in her written submission to the commission.

The investigations also did not find evidence of impropriety, Krogan-Stevely notes.

The province was aware of those results and any further investigation would have duplicated work already done, she said.

"Until the results of the DNA tests in 1997, there was no identifiable reason to re-investigate the matter," she said.

dbernhardt@sp.canwest.com

JUSTICE OFFICIALS' ARGUMENTS:

- Saskatoon Police Serviceoffers apology to Milgaard

- Milgaard lawyers engagedin 'character assassination'

- Connection to Fisher rapesnot obvious at the time

- Justice departments diligent

Ran with fact box "Justice Officials' Arguments" which hasbeen appended to the story.