Any inquiry into the Robert Baltovich case must focus closely on the dangerous bias that some trial judges develop when presiding over murder trials, Mr. Baltovich and his defence counsel - James Lockyer - said yesterday.

They said that past inquiries into wrongful convictions have mistakenly shied away from taking on such a sensitive issue, but the central role played by former Ontario Superior Court Judge John O'Driscoll in Mr. Baltovich's 1992 murder conviction cannot be ignored.

"I think he made my trial a non-trial," Mr. Baltovich said in an interview. "It was so unfair I almost feel like it was pointless. If you asked me to parcel out all my anger, he would definitely be the focus of most of it."

By the time the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned Mr. Baltovich's conviction for the murder of Elizabeth Bain - based largely on the unfairness Judge O'Driscoll had showed toward the defence - Mr. Baltovich had served nine years in prison.

"I think certainly an inquiry should look at the issue of the extent to which the trial judge should enter the arena," Mr. Lockyer said.

"I'm afraid that's what O'Driscoll did - he entered the arena. He became a part of the adversarial system, as opposed to an adjudicator. And I think that's really what the Court of Appeal found."

In its ruling, the appeal court cited numerous examples of Judge O'Driscoll conveying his doubts about the defence position or holding it up to ridicule. "Suffice it to say that taken cumulatively, they indicate the trial judge's contempt for the defence position. In our opinion, that view would not have been lost on the jury," the court said.

"I think that some inquiry commissioners - who are always judges or retired judges - demonstrate a reluctance to examine the role of the judiciary in wrongful convictions," Mr. Lockyer said yesterday.

However, in at least one case, the commissioner had no choice. In 1994, when Ontario attorney-general Marion Boyd called a public inquiry into Guy Paul Morin's wrongful murder conviction, she said it would not be permitted to examine the conduct of the judge at Mr. Morin's 1992 retrial. The Morin defence team considered the conduct of Mr. Justice James Donnelly of the Ontario Court's General Division to be unfair and prejudicial.

"The selection of trial judges is a key element to consider," Frank Addario, president of the Criminal Lawyers Association, said yesterday. "We should not be having six-week trials that are reversed because the neutral referee showed contempt for one side or the other.

"It is an open secret in the administration of justice that there are judges whose conduct routinely gives rise to grounds of appeal," he said. "There are judges who are better suited to running efficient and error-free trials than others."

As Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty appeared to teeter on the edge of calling an inquiry yesterday, Mr. Lockyer said that several dominant aspects of the Baltovich case cry out for public scrutiny.

One is so-called "soft" evidence. Mr. Lockyer said the case was replete with negative inferences drawn from how Mr. Baltovich acted after his girlfriend disappeared, and innocuous comments that he made.

Another is prosecutorial decision-making. Mr. Lockyer said that an unusual number of prosecutors drifted in and out of the case, amid rumours that it was seen as a hot potato. "It was always my suspicion that some Crowns felt very uncomfortable pursuing it," he said.

Mr. Baltovich noted that the police investigation also deserves close scrutiny: "I don't think they made the slightest attempt to keep an open mind," he said. "Frankly, from June 24, 1990, onward, it was not an investigation at all. It became a prosecution.

"Within an hour, when they made their decision to put surveillance on me, you could say the die was cast. I think maybe part of it was the power of a stereotype: A young, beautiful girl goes missing in unexplained circumstances. So, who else could it have been besides the boyfriend?"