Coroner’s Review Finds Potential Mistakes In Cases That Sent Some Innocent People To Jail

It’s a look back at a large number of contentious cases.

But what’s in the review by the chief coroner of Ontario could lead to a wave of legal action and the exoneration of suspects long considered guilty of some heinous crimes.

It centres around a man whose name you may remember – Dr. Charles Smith (top left).

He was a respected and well known forensic pathologist who worked on some of the biggest crime cases in the city of Toronto.

The evidence he uncovered while toiling for the Hospital for Sick Children was responsible for sending many people to jail and his findings helped judges and juries determine guilt in the slaying of society’s most vulnerable – our children.

But when allegations of extreme incompetence and incorrect conclusions began surfacing in cases stretching back to 1991, other experts began taking a second look at the physician’s findings.

The coroner asked a panel to look back at 44 cases Smith was involved in. And the results are troubling.

They found problems in at least 13 instances where people were convicted of a criminal offence, partly as a result of Smith’s conclusions.

At least one is still in jail.

There are at seven other cases that also raised red flags with investigators.

And now all of them will be turned over to the Attorney General for review.

For Ontario chief’s coroner Dr. Barry McLellan, the results are disturbing and disappointing.

“I am very surprised with the overall results of the review and concerned about the results of the review,” he admits. “It’s difficult to determine the magnitude of the concerns.”

The most famous case involves Sault Ste. Marie native William Mullins-Johnson, who was convicted of sexually assaulting and strangling his 12-year-old niece. 

When it was revealed that Smith lost evidence that could potentially prove the child succumbed to natural causes, Mullins-Johnson was released from custody.

The mistake had cost him 12 long years of his life.

For Mullins-Johnson, it’s a confirmation that comes far too late.

I’m still dealing with the stigma of the conviction,” he relates. “The stigma of the accusation itself.”

In another instance, a Kingston mother named Louise Reynolds, already grief stricken over the loss of her seven-year-old daughter, was charged with stabbing the child with scissors, a conclusion based largely on Smith’s findings.

She went to jail for two years awaiting trial until Smith re-examined the case and came out with a new opinion – the child may have been the victim of severe dog bites and wasn’t killed by human hands after all.

Reynolds was released but the damage was done.

Some cases didn’t result in people being sent to jail, just being imprisoned by the suspicion of society.

When an 11-month-old boy died in Sudbury in 1995, Smith’s probe showed he’d been the victim of blunt force trauma. A later examination revealed he’d actually hit his head on a table.

His parents weren’t arrested but lived under a cloud for years and authorities took their second child away from them while they investigated the circumstances.

And in a case that demonstrates the apparent sloppiness of his work, a woman was charged with the murder of a 21-month-old Peterborough girl.

But a single pubic hair found on her body disappeared and Smith maintained he’d never seen it.

Five years passed before he accidentally located it in his own desk drawer.

The man who’s helped so many others escape undeserved incarceration isn’t surprised by the results.

“Of course confidence in the administration of justice has been severely affected by today’s announcement,” suggests James Lockyer of the Association of the Wrongly Convicted. “And rightly so.”

A cascade of lawsuits and demands for public inquiries could begin now that the evidence is being questioned.

“If there has been any miscarriage of justice among the 13 convictions reviewed by the chief coroner, as chief law officer of the Crown, I will do everything in my power to set it right.

“I will do everything in my power as well to prevent it from ever happening again.”

And what of Dr. Smith himself, the man whose actions led to all the doubt? Since no criminal charges have been laid against him, it’s up to the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons to determine his fate.

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