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In this article they speak of the hair evidence which led to his conviction. Eye witness Leisa Millard identifying the shooter as having "two inch picky dreads" and the picture also shown to represent the article shows the picture the eyewitness was shown to identify the shooter and anyone can clearly see that Leighton does not have the hair described but the down argued that Leighton had gone home that night and had a haircut.

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The charges against Leighton Hay, a Toronto man convicted of an execution-style murder in 2002, were withdrawn this morning and he walked out of court a free man after more than 12 years in prison.

The Crown said it is no longer in the public interest to pursue the case.

Hay, 19 at the time, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the July 2002 killing of 51-year-old Colin Moore. But he appealed based on forensic testing on hairs found in his apartment.

Hay's case was taken on by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted in 2011, which called it "factual innocence."

"Leighton has been through a nightmare for all these years," said James Lockyer, the association's senior counsel, who said before Hay was released that his "walk into freedom today" would be "momentous for him."

"This was a miscarriage of justice of the highest order," Lockyer added.

Hay's lawyers have asked Justice John McMahon to apologize on behalf of the justice system.

Hair evidence key to case

On July 6, 2002, Moore was hosting an event at a nightclub in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke. At 1:13 a.m. ET, two men armed with handguns stormed into the nightclub, and shot and killed Moore.

Police identified one of the gunmen as Gary Eunick.

Eunick had borrowed the car of Hay's mother and was driving it the night in question, according to police.

When police found the car at Hay's home, they arrested both Eunick and Hay.

Witnesses from the nightclub described the second gunman as having "two inch picky dreads" - longer hair than what Hay had at the time.

The Crown argued at his original trial in 2004 that Hay returned home after the shooting and had a haircut.

The police searched for evidence of a haircut at Hay's home, and found some very short hairs in a newspaper in a garbage bin and on an electric razor in his bedroom.

Hay's lawyers presented evidence at the appeal - the second appeal on the crime - that questioned whether Hay indeed got a haircut.

Hay's lawyers also highlighted one witness who identified Hay with "80 per cent" certainty as the gunman at the nightclub. Two weeks later, the same witness did not select Hay's photo in a lineup.

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'Walk into freedom': Murder charges withdrawn after Toronto man's 12 years in prison | CBC News

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The charges against Leighton Hay, a Toronto man convicted of an execution-style murder in 2002, were withdrawn this morning and he walked out of court a free man after more than 12 years in prison. The Crown said it is no longer in the public interest to pursue the case.

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This is an image from the day that Leighton was released from jail and shows his father behind him.

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This was one of the actually shooters from that night.

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In the video it shows Leighton as he leaves the court as a free man but he choose to be silent as his dad spoke. You can see that Leighton is just trying to get away from the media and his silence proves it. His father was just saying how he is glad that his son is finally free and may come home now.

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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.

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This is just an article giving the important facts of this case which I have also mentioned in the study questions.

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It took 12 years for the justice system to believe in Leighton Hay's innocence, and because of that, the Superior Court of Justice apologized to him on Friday, saying it took too long to get things right.

Mr. Hay became a free man after the Crown ended its prosecution of him for the shooting death of Colin Moore on July 6, 2002. Justice John McMahon said Mr. Hay was free to go and deserving of an apology. The judge acknowledged how slowly and wrongly the legal system had handled Mr. Hay's conviction for first-degree murder.

"You don't get [an apology] very often," said James Lockyer, Mr. Hay's lawyer and the founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted (AIDWYC). "It was important to all of us because this man was done wrong, terribly wrong."

Mr. Hay showed no emotion when told he could go home. He hugged his sister, Lisa, went to his parents, Lascelles and Lydia, then walked out of the courtroom. He did not speak to the media outside the court house, either.

Mr. Hay has schizophrenia, a condition his family and lawyers say worsened while he was in prison.

Mr. Hay was charged with murder in a deadly shooting at a charity event in a Toronto nightclub. Multiple witnesses told police that two men entered the club and got into a fight with organizers Colin and Roger Moore. One of the attackers was identified as Gary Eunick, a club regular who flew into a rage when told he had to pay a $10 cover charge. Mr. Eunick left the club only to return minutes later with a 9 mm handgun and a second shooter.

Mr. Eunick opened fire, killed Colin Moore and wounded his brother. The second shooter used a long-barrelled revolver. He had dreadlocks, and a witness later said she was 80-per-cent sure it was Mr. Hay.

Mr. Eunick lived in the same house as Mr. Hay, and a police search found a long-barrelled revolver, a T-shirt with gunshot residue on it and other clothes that witnesses at the club had described. Investigators also discovered a newspaper with hair clippings on it.

Mr. Hay maintained that he was not at the club that night. The Crown contended that Mr. Hay returned home after the shooting and shaved his head to rid himself of the telltale dreadlocks. The hair evidence helped send Mr. Hay to the Kingston Penitentiary for life in May, 2004. Mr. Eunick was also sentenced to life. (Mr. Hay was later moved to the Millhaven Institute's mental health facility.)

Mr. Lockyer, along with fellow lawyers Philip Campbell and Joanne McLean, appealed Mr. Hay's case all the way to the Supreme Court. Mr. Lockyer presented fresh evidence from two forensic experts who said the clippings found on the newspaper, although they came from Mr. Hay, were mostly facial hair, not hair from the head.

The Supreme Court voted unanimously in favour of a retrial for Mr. Hay. One judge, Marshall Rothstein, wrote: "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."

The Crown said it is not in the public interest to go forward with the second trial.

Now that Mr. Hay has been freed, there is another matter to take care of - compensation for his time in prison. When asked about that, Mr. Lockyer told the media: "If anyone ever deserves compensation it is Leighton Hay. He sorely needs it and deserves it. ...We're going to do our damnedest to make sure that happens."

It was an eventful week for AIDWYC. On Monday, Glen Assoun was granted bail after spending 17 years in jail for a murder he says he did not commit. On Tuesday, Minister of Justice Peter MacKay referred Frank Ostrowski's first-degree murder conviction to the Manitoba Court of Appeal. Mr. Ostrowski, another client of Mr. Lockyer, served 23 years in prison adamantly denying he had anything to do with the 1986 drug-related murder of Robert Neiman.

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Wrongfully convicted of murder, Leighton Hay free after 12 years

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It took 12 years for the justice system to believe in Leighton Hay's innocence, and because of that, the Superior Court of Justice apologized to him on Friday, saying it took too long to get things right. Mr. Hay became a free man after the Crown ended its prosecution of him for the shooting death of Colin Moore on July 6, 2002.

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This is a video about the case that I discovered on youtube.This video gives a timeline of how all the events occurred in order.

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In this video you see more than just Leightons father speaking.

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The Crown has dropped a murder charge against a Toronto man who was serving a life sentence for killing respected community figure Colin Moore, 51, in July 2002.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a new trial for Leighton Hay after his lawyers presented hair samples they said proved his innocence.

Lawyer James Lockyer, founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), asked the judge to apologize to Hay on the Attorney General's behalf.

"Nothing I say will bring back the 12 years," Judge John McMahon said in ordering the first-degree murder charge withdrawn.

"I apologize that it has taken this long for the justice system to get it right. I wish you well."

McMahon also said the evidence against Hay was circumstantial and it wasn't anyone's fault that the science wasn't there at the time of his conviction.

Justice had been served by the Centre for Forensic Sciences, the Crown and the defense, he added.

The court room erupted into cheers as justice McMahon signs the papers to withdraw charge of first degree murder.

- Shaunacitynews (@shaunacitynews) November 28, 2014

The Crown alleged Hay, then 19, was Eunick's dreadlocked accomplice based largely on hair found in a newspaper in his bathroom garbage as well as in the electric razor on his nightstand.

At their trial in 2004, prosecutors argued Hay, who always denied any part in the killing, had shaved his scalp to change his appearance after the shooting.

The one witness who claimed to have identified Hay as a gunman had pointed to his image in a photo line-up, saying he looked more like the second gunman than the other 11. She was shown a second line-up three weeks later and did not choose Hay.

Nevertheless, the jury convicted him of first-degree murder.

The AIDWYC became involved after Ontario's top court rejected his appeal.

At the association's request, forensic experts determined the hair samples did not come from his scalp but from his face.

That undermined the Crown's belief he had rushed home after the killing and shaved his dreadlocks.

The Supreme Court said the new evidence could have made a crucial difference and quashed the conviction.

The Crown announced Friday it would not proceed against him.

Hay, who suffers from mental illness, has spent most of his time in custody in the psychiatric wings of two Canadian penitentiaries.

"Leighton has been through a nightmare for all these years," Lockyer said.

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

At the time of the Supreme Court decision, Lockyer said he didn't think his client understood what had transpired and would likely need to live in a psychiatric hospital.

However, Win Wahrer of the AIDWYC said he would be living with his parents.

Eunick has exhausted all of his appeals and is still serving a life sentence.
Click here for a timeline of other wrongful convictions. With files from The Canadian Press

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Murder charge dropped against Toronto man after 12 years in prison - CityNews Toronto

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The Crown has dropped a murder charge against a Toronto man who was serving a life sentence for killing respected community figure Colin Moore, 51, in July 2002. Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a new trial for Leighton Hay after his lawyers presented hair samples they said proved his innocence.

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Another article that discusses the reasons for the wrongful conviction.

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TORONTO - A man wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder more than a decade ago took his first anxious steps as a free man on Friday after the Crown withdrew the charge against him.

The decision came a year after the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously decided Leighton Hay should get a new trial based on new hair evidence.

As Hay and family members looked on, Superior Court Justice John McMahon apologized that it took so long for the system to get it right.

"He's out, he's free," an excited Win Wahrer of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted said minutes after the brief hearing. "He just wants to go home."

Hay, who has a mental illness and spent most of his incarceration in the psychiatric wings of two penitentiaries, had little to say as he left court.

Lawyer James Lockyer said in an interview he wasn't sure his client was able to process the implications of what had just occurred.

"Leighton has been through a nightmare for all these years," Lockyer said. "This was a miscarriage of justice of the highest order."

As a teen with mental-health problems and a member of a visible minority, the lawyer said, Hay was "vulnerable" and police rushed to judgment.

"He was another black guy," Lockyer said.

Hay was charged after two men burst into a fundraiser at a Toronto nightclub in July 2002 and gunned down a respected community figure, Colin Moore, over a disputed cover charge.

The identity of one of the shooters, Gary Eunick, was never in doubt and he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

The Crown alleged Hay, then 19, was Eunick's dreadlocked accomplice. The only problem was Hay's hair was almost completely shorn when police arrested him.

At his trial in 2004, prosecutors argued Hay had rushed home and shaved his scalp to get rid of his dreadlocks after the shooting.

Key evidence in support of the prosecution theory was hair found in a newspaper in his bathroom garbage and in the electric razor on his nightstand.

The one witness who fingered Hay had pointed to his image in a photo line-up, saying he looked more like the second gunman than the other 11. She was shown a second line-up three weeks later and did not choose Hay, who always denied any part in the killing.

Leighton has been through a nightmare for all these years,. This was a miscarriage of justice of the highest order

Nevertheless, the jury convicted him of first-degree murder.

The association for the wrongly convicted became involved after Ontario's top court rejected his appeal.

At the association's request, forensic experts determined the hair used to convict Hay did not come from his scalp but from his face. The finding undercut the Crown's contention he had cut off his dreads to alter his appearance.

Last November, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the new hair evidence. The court concluded the information could have made a crucial difference at Hay's trial and quashed his conviction.

The Crown announced Friday it would not proceed against him.

Hay's mental health declined in custody, but Lockyer said he was "guardedly optimistic" Hay would manage as a free man living with his father.

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Leighton Hay finally freed a decade after wrongful first-degree murder conviction

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TORONTO - A man wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder more than a decade ago took his first anxious steps as a free man on Friday after the Crown withdrew the charge against him. The decision came a year after the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously decided Leighton Hay should get a new trial based on new hair evidence.

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This specific picture of Leighton Hay shows him standing in Downtown Toronto as you see the CN tower behind him. Relates to the fact that this event happened in Toronto.

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"Leighton Hay" Innocence Canada, http://www.innocencecanada.com/exonerations/leighton-hay/
"Lawyer for wrongfully convicted Leighton Hay speaks." CBC Radio Canada, 28/11/14, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/lawyer-for-wrongfully-convicted-leighton-hay-speaks-1.2854095
"Wrongfully convicted Leighton Hay free after 12 years." The Globe and Mail Canada, 28/11/14, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/wrongly-convicted-of-murder-leighton-hay-free-after-12-years/article21825039/

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After serving 12 years for something he had no part in Leighton was able to make it out alive from his personal hell. he is now a citizen again without any criminal record.