David Milgaard has been actively helping people who claim to have been wrongfully convicted until his sudden death, including two indigenous sisters who have been in prison for nearly 30 years.
A victim of one of Canada’s most notorious miscarriages of justice, he spent 23 years in prison for rape and murder in 1969, which he did not commit.
Milgaard died over the weekend after a short illness at the age of 69.
Odelia Quezans, who was convicted of second-degree murder in a 1993 murder she denies involvement, told the Canadian Press that Milgaard was her “biggest supporter” and that he was “like a brother, an angel.” ” for her.
“I am really heartbroken for him, but I sincerely believe today that he is still watching over us,” she said in a telephone interview.
She was speaking from the Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan after being approved for a brief home visit, her first in years, she said.
Her husband first contacted Milgaard about two years ago about her case, Quevezans said, and they have been communicating frequently since.
Milgaard wished her success just days before her home visit, she said.
James Lockyer, a Toronto-based lawyer who helped acquit Milgaard in 1997 and helped found the advocacy organization Innocence Canada, was in Keeseekoose to meet with Quewezance on Monday.
Locker said he would not have worked on the case had it not been for Milgaard, who was defending the Couvezans, who was 20 at the time she was arrested in the murder of 70-year-old farmer Anthony Joseph Dolph near Kamsak, Sasuke.
Her sister Nerisa, then 18, was also sentenced to life in prison with parole after 10 years.
Nerissa is in jail at an institution in Fraser Valley in British Columbia, where Locker said he first met her in person on Sunday.
Odelia said she spoke with Nerisa for the first time in some time on Monday.
It has been about 19 years since the sisters last saw each other in person.
Locker said they were present when Dolph was stabbed to death, but they were not involved in the murder. Someone who was young at the time confessed to the murder during the trial, testifying that the sisters were not involved, he said.
Milgaard urged Lockyer to look into the sisters’ case. He decided to take over after talking to them and reading transcripts of the trial, he said.
Evidence that the sisters were involved in the murder depends on the police officers who arrested them, Lockyer said, explaining that the RCMP claimed to have given a series of testimonies that were not recorded and became “increasingly incriminating” over time. of five days.
A provincial judge ordered them sent to a nearby jail 24 hours after their arrest, he said, but the two were held by the mountains for another four days.
Locker describes them as “two young indigenous women, essentially at the mercy of a bunch of RCMP officers for five days without any protection.”
“It is obvious to me that the statements they made were later statements that are incriminating, they are completely unreliable,” he said.
The nurses are part of a staggering statistic that Indigenous women make up nearly half of women imprisoned in federal prisons when they make up less than five percent of Canada’s population, Lockyer said.
“Forget for a moment the miscarriage of justice during their trial, they are still (in prison), 20 years after they were entitled to parole,” Lockyer said.
“They need to be able to live the rest of their lives as free people.”
The only remaining way to overturn the Quevezans sisters’ sentences is through a ministerial review, Lockier said, who applied to Justice Minister David Lametti on their behalf in December.
The minister has appointed a lawyer in Ottawa to review the case on his behalf, Lockyer said.
“Then we have to convince her and the minister himself that this case is a miscarriage of justice,” he said.
In a statement lamenting Milgaard’s death, the Aboriginal Congress said that “the faith and strength he showed in the worst moments is an inspiring story that continues to push defenders of those who have been unjustly targeted.”
National Vice President Kim Bodin said Milgaard’s support for the indigenous population, “fighting within the Canadian justice system, will not be forgotten.”
“His work to help the Quevezans sisters has helped them come closer to finding justice.
Milgaard was only 16 when he was indicted and subsequently wrongfully convicted of raping and killing a woman in Saskatoon in 1969.
The Winnipeg-born teenager was traveling through the city with two friends at the time when nurse Gail Miller was raped and killed.
Milgaard described the prison as a “nightmare.”
He was released in 1992 after his mother, who fought relentlessly to clear his name, insisted that the case be heard by Canada’s Supreme Court. His sentence was overturned and he was later acquitted by a DNA test in 1997.
A man named Larry Fisher was convicted in 1999 of first-degree murder in Miller’s death and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2015.
The Saskatchewan government issued an official apology to Milgaard and awarded him a $ 10 million compensation package.
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