Acquittal: An unprecedented decision brings tears and so much relief

FREDERICTON - Erin Michael Walsh got his dying wish on Friday when the New Brunswick Court of Appeal acquitted him of a 1975 non-capital murder conviction and removed the stigma of a killer that has haunted him for almost 33 years.

Immediately after Justice Margaret Larlee, speaking for the panel of three appeal court judges, granted the acquittal Walsh’s wife, Angela, leapt out of her seat behind him and wrapped her arms around him as they both wept with relief.

Walsh, a 59-year-old who is dying from colon cancer, struggled to his feet from his wheelchair and made an unconventional but emotional address to the court.

“I just like to express my heartfelt gratitude for your decision here today,” Walsh said, leaning on his cane.

“On behalf of my family and myself, it is just a tremendous relief for me and I just want to thank you for your fairness, your astuteness in coming to this decision.”

The Court of Appeal heard arguments on Friday over how to deal with the federal government’s order to review Walsh’s case. This is the first time a New Brunswick murder conviction has ever been reviewed by the Court of Appeal and the judges heard the case with unconventional speed because of Walsh’s deteriorating health.

What both Walsh’s lawyers and the provincial government did agree on is that a miscarriage of justice had likely taken place in 1975, but there was a dispute over whether after almost 33 years he should be offered an outright acquittal of the charges or a judicial stay in proceedings, which the Crown had urged.

The Walsh appeal revolved around five pieces of new evidence that were never before the court in 1975 and may not have been disclosed to the defence.

Among the withheld evidence was a statement written by a detective concerning cell block conversations he overheard shortly after the murder of Melvin Eugene (Chi Chi) Peters.

Another crucial piece of evidence that was not disclosed to the defence at the first trial was the statements of seven railway workers who Walsh asked to call the police after a scuff le on Tin Can Beach in Saint John just before Peters was shot.

A federal independent counsel asked to investigate the Walsh case criticized the disclosure practices of the Crown prosecutor, William McCarroll, who is now a Provincial Court judge in Saint John.

Leaving the Fredericton courthouse on Friday afternoon, Walsh was a free man for the first time in more than three decades, a gift he will not squander in his remaining days.

“I’m a free man. I mean, freedom now means something to me, it is not just a word,” Walsh said.“It is something that I’m going to wear every day of my life just like I wore my captivity.”

Dressed in a blue suit, blue buttondown vest and a blue tie, Walsh appeared pale and gaunt, having lost at least 10 pounds since his last court appearance in late February. Still in his wheelchair, the verdict appeared to breathe new life into him. He said he never doubted that eventually his name would be cleared.

Before leaving the courthouse, he posed for photos with his legal team and family and made a series of ecstatic phone calls.

“When this happened to me I never gave up hope that one day I would be exonerated,” he said.

Standing nearby and still wiping away her own tears, Angela said she was overwhelmed by the decision and how it lifted a burden that has weighed on her family for so long.

“We have been through so many things, it is just closure. It just makes everything right,” she said.

Walsh now joins a growing number of Canadians such as David Milgaard and Thomas Sophonow who have seen their names cleared in cases of wrongful conviction.

Walsh spent roughly a decade incarcerated for the Peters murder but spent almost 25 years in custody because of parole violations.

James Lockyer, a lawyer for Walsh and with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, said like the other miscarriages of justice cases, they are all tragedies that have had a proper ending.

“Any justice system that can acknowledge that they got something wrong almost 33 years ago and so definitely and decisively deal with it as they did today speaks well of our justice system as far as I’m concerned,” Lockyer said.

Jeffrey Mockler, a Crown prosecutor, said the government was “happy” that it got a fair hearing.

Next for Walsh will be his civil case that he filed last year against McCarroll, the City of Saint John, all of its police chiefs since 1975, the province of New Brunswick and the RCMP for what he has described as a deliberate attempt to suppress evidence. There is also an enormous amount of pressure to get this case finished because if Walsh were to die before a verdict, a New Brunswick law drastically limits the amount of damages that can be awarded.

Walsh and his lawyers sidestepped questions on the civil case on Friday.

“It will be pursued vigorously but I can’t say anything more. It is not my focus,” Walsh said.