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This document is relevant because it is the record of Leighton Hay's appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In 2013, Leighton Hay appealed his Court of Appeal of Ontario conviction to the Supreme Court of Canada, and the judge ruled that fresh evidence should be allowed and a new trial should be ordered.

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This blog post is relevant because it discusses the conviction of Leighton Hay and what circumstances led to him being freed.
Leighton Hay was wrongfully convicted of the first-degree murder of Collin Moore who was shot and killed at a nightclub in Etobicoke. In 2014, the Crown terminated his prosecution, and released him from prison.

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In 2002, when Leighton Hay was only 19 years old he was arrested and charged with first degree murder for a murder he did not commit. In 2004, Hay was wrongfully convicted of the first degree of Collin Moore. Moore was shot and killed in an Etobicoke, Toronto nightclub July 6 2002 by two gunmen.

The Crown's case against Hay was based upon circumstantial evidence and questionable eyewitness testimony. One crucial eyewitness gave evidence that she had seen one of the gunman, alleged to be Hay, sporting two-inch long dreadlocks at the time of the shooting. She initially picked Hay out of a photo line-up, but during a second photo line-up she failed to pick Hay.

Her testimony proved to be problematic for the Crown as Hay had extremely short hair when arrested. To resolve the discrepancy between the eyewitness testimony and Hay's appearance at he time of his arrest the Crown provided a theory. The Crown suggested that after the shooting Hay had immediately returned to his home and gave himself a haircut in the period of time between the shooting and his arrest.

The defence stipulated that if the Crown could not prove that Hay had cut his hair in the time between the shooting and his arrest, the description of the gunman provided by the eyewitness proved Leighton's innocence. At the time of his arrest the police had found some very short hairs in Hay's garbage and razor. At his first trial in 2004 the Crown convinced the jury that these hairs must be evidence of haircut just prior to his arrest. Hay was consequentially convicted of first degree murder. Hay went on to appeal his conviction.

On May 9, 2009 his appeal was denied by the Ontario Court of Appeal, sighting that the hairs provided sufficient evidence of his guilt. With the help of the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted, Hay had some success with the appeal process. AIDWYC adopted Hay's case on the bases of factual innocence and made an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. AIDWYC brought a motion to the Supreme Court of Canada that the hair evidence be released for further scientific testing. This motion was granted on November 18, 2010. The finding of which were that the hair, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, were from a facial shave and not from a haircut, and such could not have been the gun man that the Crown had described as having two-inch dreadlocks.

In April of 2013 ADWYIC presented this evidence to the Supreme Court of Canada. In November of 2013 the new scientific evidence in support of Hay's innocence was admitted and his conviction was overturned. A new trial was ordered. Justice Rothstein found that

" [the new evidence] is not so decisive as to allow an immediate disposition in the form of an acquittal. The Crown, in its submissions on the motion to adduce fresh evidence, has raised the possibility of certain limitations or gaps in the expert evidence adduced in this appeal. The interests of justice require that the Court remit the matter for a new trial, in which the Crown would have the opportunity to adduce evidence challenging the reliability of the fresh evidence."

On Friday, November 28, 2014, Leighton Hay was released more than 12 years in prison. The charges against hime were withdrawn. The Crown said that was no longer in the public interest to pursue the case against Hay and announced the termination of his prosecution for first-degree murder. James Lockyer, AIDWYC's senior counsel, who represented Mr. Hay in the Supreme Court of Canada, said today: "Leighton has been through a nightmare for all these years. His walk into freedom today will be momentous for him and for us at AIDWYC. His family will be at court and he will need all their support and AIDWYC's support in the months to come. This was a miscarriage of justice of the highest order.

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#wrongfullyconvictedwednesday Leighton Hay - Pyzer Criminal Lawyers

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In 2002, when Leighton Hay was only 19 years old he was arrested and charged with first degree murder for a murder he did not commit. In 2004, Hay was wrongfully convicted of the first degree of Collin Moore. Moore was shot and killed in an Etobicoke, Toronto nightclub July...

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This page is relevant to my topic because it details the events that led to the wrongful conviction of Leighton Hay, and the steps taken to exonerate him.
In 2002, 19 year old Leighton Hay was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder In 2014, 12 years after being convicted, Leighton was freed based on fresh evidence.

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On Friday, July 5, 2002 Leighton Hay was a 19-year-old attending high-school extension courses. Although it was a Friday evening he decided to stay at home where he lived with his mother and older sister, Lisa. He was oblivious to the tragic events that were about to unfold, events which would change his life forever.

At 12:58 a.m. on July 6, 2002, four men and a woman tried to enter the HHMS Nightclub on Victoria Park Avenue in Scarborough, Ontario without paying the cover charge. An altercation broke out. Roger Moore, one of the organizers of the event taking place that evening, hit one of the men over the head with a bottle. The intruders left but at 1:14 a.m. three men with handguns pushed their way into the club and eventually two of them entered the kitchen where brothers Colin and Roger Moore were standing. Colin Moore was shot eight times and died from his wounds. Roger Moore survived the bullet wound that grazed his forehead.

In the kitchen at the time of the shooting were Colin Moore's wife Jennifer Moore and friend Leisa Maillard. Neither was injured.

Jennifer Moore identified Gary Eunick as one of shooters. He was Lisa Hay's boyfriend and was known to Jennifer Moore and other patrons of the night club, including its owner. He was also identified by several of the eyewitnesses as one of the three men who had been involved in the earlier fight as well as being one of the gunmen. Jennifer Moore did not recognize the second gunman who was dressed in a blue plaid shirt. However, Leisa Maillard said that she kept her eyes on the second shooter whom she said she observed for approximately 16 seconds.

Leisa Maillard and other eyewitnesses told the police that the second shooter had two-inch picky dreadlocks.

The owner of the nightclub had written down the license plate number of the car in which the shooters escaped. The police were able to identify the car as belonging to Lydia Hay, Leighton's mother.

The police immediately put the Hay home under surveillance and at around noon on July 6, 2002 they arrested both Gary Eunick and Leighton. However, the police had a problem. At the time of his arrest, Leighton did not have two-inch picky dreadlocks. When questioned by the police, Leighton told them that his hair had been cropped short for the past 18 months.

Upon searching the Hay home, the police found short hairs wrapped in a newspaper in the garbage can in the bathroom, adjacent to Leighton's bedroom. The police also observed hairs in an electric razor on a table next to Leighton's bed. Leighton advised the police that he had shaved his face two days previously.

However, the police were convinced that Leighton must have returned home after the shooting and shaved his head in order to disguise his appearance. No long hairs were found so the police surmised that Leighton had flushed those hairs down the toilet.

The case against Leighton Hay at trial rested on the eyewitness evidence of Leisa Maillard whom the police had shown a photo line-up which included him. She pointed at his photo saying that he looked more like the second gunman than the other 11 photos, giving an 80% estimate of her own accuracy. Leisa Maillard was shown a second line-up three weeks later and did not select Leighton's photo. At court at the preliminary hearing, she identified Gary Eunick as the second gunman.

At his trial, the Crown told the jury that the residue found in the electric razor and the newspaper was what was left after Leighton cut his dreadlocks and flushed the longer hairs down the toilet.

The jury convicted both Leighton and Gary Eunick of first-degree murder.

On May 12, 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed Leighton's appeal. The Court laid particular emphasis on the supposed haircut which "tipped the scales" in support of the jury's verdict.

After Leighton lost his appeal, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), now Innocence Canada, adopted his case as one of likely innocence.

Our lawyers decided to seek scientific testing of the hairs found in the Hay home to see whether they were really facial/beard hairs. Mr. Tony Tessarolo, the Director of the Centre of Forensic Sciences (the Centre) agreed to have the Centre conduct a forensic examination of the hairs to determine their bodily origin. The Crown opposed this testing and refused to release the hairs to the Centre for examination. Innocence Canada asked the Supreme Court of Canada for an order that the exhibits be released to the Centre. On November 18, 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada made this order.

The examination was conducted by Centre scientist, Joanne Almer, and an outside expert, retained by the defence. Microscopic examination showed that the hairs were facial hairs, not head hairs. The prosecution theory that Leighton had shaved his head to disguise his appearance was unsustainable. Leighton could not have been the gunman with the two-inch picky dreads.

On April 23, 2013 Innocence Canada counsel, James Lockyer and Philip Campbell, argued Leighton's case in the Supreme Court of Canada.

On November 8, 2013, in a lengthy judgment, the Supreme Court of Canada admitted the new scientific evidence, quashed Leighton's conviction and ordered a new trial on the charge of first degree murder.

In the judgment, Mr. Justice Rothstein said:

" Given the significance of the haircut to the Crown's case, Mr. Hay's fresh evidence indicating that the hair clippings did not come from a scalp shave could reasonably be expected to have affected the result ".

Following the Supreme Court decision, the Crown continued to act as if it intended to proceed with the new trial. This was painstakingly stressful for Leighton and his family.

On November 28, 2014 the Crown finally withdrew the first-degree murder charge against Leighton. For the first time in 12½ years, he was a free man. Leighton walked out into the sunlight and was reunited with his father and sister.

James Lockyer who championed Leighton's case and fought for his freedom alongside Phil Campbell said:

" Leighton has been through a nightmare for all these years. His walk into freedom today will be momentous for him and for us at AIDWYC. His family will be at court and he will need all their support and AIDWYC's support in the months to come.

This was a miscarriage of justice of the highest order. "

Phil Campbell, one of Leighton's dedicated lawyers, said:

" I will never forget how crushed I was on the day Leighton's conviction was upheld after his first appeal; it was the bleakest day of my career. Today is a better, brighter day, Leighton has faced many challenges during his years in penitentiary and more lie ahead. The consequences of his wrongful conviction will linger long after the courts and lawyer close their files. But for today, his freedom and the righting of a wrong are worth celebrating. "

Since his walk into the sunshine Leighton has proven to be a wise young man of few words who takes one day at a time. He has not allowed the 12 years of his life that he lost to dampen his positive outlook or stop him from pursuing his interests or dreams in his time and in his unique way.

Innocence Canada's Director of Client Services, Win Wahrer, describes him as patient, kind and forgiving as well as resolute, loyal with a deep thirst for knowledge:

" Leighton is a person of high integrity, intuitiveness, hardworking and dependable who deserves the opportunity to realize and achieve all his personal and professional goals and in time despite the challenges that lie ahead, I am sure he will. "

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On Friday, July 5, 2002 Leighton Hay was a 19-year-old attending high-school extension courses. Although it was a Friday evening he decided to stay at home where he lived with his mother and older sister, Lisa. He was oblivious to the tragic events that were about to unfold, events which would change his life forever.

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Wrongful Conviction: Key Dates - Toronto Star

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Wrongful Conviction: Key Dates - Toronto Star

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This article is relevant to my topic because it discusses in detail the events that led up to Leighton Hay's conviction and his subsequent exoneration.
Leighton Hay spent 12 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and most of that time was spent in Kingston in a prison psychiatric unit while being treated for depression.

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Leighton Hay, 31, of Mississauga has been living a nightmare for the past 12-and-a-half years, since he was sent to maximum-security prison for a murder that forensic testing suggests he did not commit.

Much of Hay's time since 2002 has been spent in a prison psychiatric unit in Kingston, where he's treated with anti-depressant medication.

"Leighton has been through a nightmare for all these years," his lawyer, James Lockyer of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) said.

"His walk into freedom today will be momentous for him and for us at AIDWYC," Lockyer said.

Here are key dates in Hay's legal odyssey:
July 6, 2002
Early that Saturday morning, three men balk at paying a $10 cover charge at a community charity dance at the HHMS Restaurant and Nightclub on Victoria Park Ave., just south of Eglinton Ave.

The monthly dances are usually calm events, appealing to the middle-aged Guyanese community, organized by Martin Colin Moore, 51, a father-of-two and a beloved member of the Guyanese-Canadian community.

The three men clash with Moore, and his brother Roger, and are ejected.

Minutes later, at 1:13 a.m., two men with handguns burst into the restaurant and the unarmed Moore brothers are cornered in the kitchen.

Martin Colin Moore is shot eight times, including a bullet to his aorta. He's rushed to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and is pronounced dead within hours.

Roger Moore is grazed in the head with a bullet and survives.
July 6, 2002
A witness notes the license plate of a car carrying the killers.

It leads police to a home on Chigwell Court in Mississauga that's shared by 19-year-old Leighton Hay and 27-year-old Gary Eunick.

Eunick matches the description of one of the killers.

He's the boyfriend of Hay's sister Lisa. He works as a hair stylist and has a criminal record for firearms offences and cocaine possession and was sentenced to 14 months and two weeks of jail time.

In a clothes hamper, police find a sock with six different types of ammunition inside.

They also find strands of hair inside a crumpled piece of newspaper in a bathroom and observe that Hay's hair is short.

Witnesses say the second gunman had "two inch picky dreads."

Eunick and Hay are arrested for first-degree murder.
May 10, 2004
The Crown presents powerful evidence against Eunick at their jury trial.

Court hears that gunpowder residue and blood matching that of Eunick were found on an orange vest similar to that worn by a gunman at the restaurant.

Blood matching Eunick's DNA was also discovered inside a Honda Civic that matched the description of one seen speeding away from the restaurant after the shooting.

The jury hears that Eunick's DNA was also found on broken glass in the restaurant's parking lot and on the building's front door and that there were 72 gunshot residue patches on a pair of Eunick's jeans.

Hay's lawyer Jeff House argues that his client was at home asleep at the time of the shooting.

The Crown suggests that Hay shaved his head immediately after the murder to alter his appearance and confuse witnesses.

DNA testing is not done on the hair clippings at the time of the trial to determine if its head hair or hair from a facial shave.
June 8, 2004
Eunick and Leighton Hay are each sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

Hay spends much of his time heavily medicated in a psychiatric unit.
May 17, 2010
Hay's legal team from the AIDWYC - James Lockyer, Philip Campbell and Joanne McLean - ask the Supreme Court of Canada to allow them to send the hairs from the newspaper for forensic testing.

If the clippings are found to be facial hair, they argue, this would undercut the Crown theory that Hay shaved his head to alter his appearance after the shooting.
Nov. 18, 2010
The Supreme Court of Canada orders the release of key exhibits from the trial for forensic testing. It's the first time a Canadian court has ordered court exhibits released for forensic testing when a case is over, after a convicted person has exhausted all appeals.
Nov. 8, 2013
Scientists find the hairs found wrapped in the newspaper were from a facial shave "to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty."

After hearing this, the Supreme Court of Canada votes 7-0 in favour of granting a new trial for Hay, who's now 30.

Hay sounds stunned on speaker phone from Millhaven maximum-security prison as he was told the news by Lockyer.
Nov. 28, 2014
Judge at University Ave. courthouse approves Crown withdrawal of prosecution against Hay.

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association in defence of the wrongly convicted

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Wrongful conviction: Key dates in the legal nightmare of Leighton Hay of Mississauga

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Leighton Hay, 31, of Mississauga has been living a nightmare for the past 12-and-a-half years, since he was sent to maximum-security prison for a murder that forensic testing suggests he did not commit. Much of Hay's time since 2002 has been spent in a prison psychiatric unit in Kingston, where he's treated with anti-depressant medication.

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Leighton Hay in Court -  Alex Tavshunsky Sketch 

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Leighton Hay in Court -  Alex Tavshunsky Sketch 

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This image is relevant to my topic because it is a sketch of Leighton Hay in court in 2004.
The Crown suggested that Leighton Hay did not have dreads (which the suspected murderers had) because he shaved his head when he got home.

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This image is relevant to my topic because it shows Leighton Hay prior to his wrongful conviction when he was 19.
Leighton Hay was wrongly convicted based on hair evidence, which was later proven to be of no connection to the Crown's case.

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Leighton Hay Takes First Steps as a Free Man - The Canadian Press

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Leighton Hay Takes First Steps as a Free Man - The Canadian Press

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This image is relevant because it is a photo of Leighton Hay immediately after becoming a free man.
The Crown withdrew their charge against Leighton Hay after he spent 12 years in prison. This photo shows him walking outside in Toronto.

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Wrongfully Convicted Leighton Hay is Now Free - CBC News

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Wrongfully Convicted Leighton Hay is Now Free - CBC News

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This video is relevant because it shows a review of the information of Leighton Hay's wrongful conviction.
Leighton Hay was wrongly convicted when his family car was used as a getaway car after a fatal shooting at a nightclub. Evidence found that the hairs used to convict him were facial hairs, and therefore could not have been from a haircut.

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Wrongfully convicted Leighton Hay is now free

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This video is relevant because it shows Leighton Hay hugging his lawyer after finally becoming a free man after his wrongful conviction 12 years prior.
Reporters were waiting when Leighton Hay walked out of the court, where he was reserved and hugged his lawyer and the judge before walking away with his father.

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This video is relevant to my topic because it shows Leighton Hay and his father and sister being interviewed after leaving the court with Leighton as a free man.
Leighton Hay was silent when he came out of the court and seemed stunned. His father and sister were overjoyed for his vindication and looking forward to spending Christmas with him.

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Leighton Hay walks out of court a free man, 12 years after his lawyers say he was wrongfully convicted for an execution-style murder.