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This is James Driskell. He was arrested for the first-degree murder of his friend Perry Harder in 1990. Although he was innocent he spent 13 years in prison for a crime he had never committed. In 1991 he was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

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This is a picture of James Lockyer. He was the defense attourney for James Driskell. He did a great job at defending James and if it wasnt for the false statements from Reath Zanidean then Driskell would of never been convicted. James is now a founder of the association of the wrongfullly convicted, a orginization that specializes in case such as this.

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This post is a website that explains the story from the beginning to the end. Its a suitable website for this case study. The article goes in depth to James life before the incident and his relationship with the victim " Perry Harder". The article talks about his appeal, tunnel vision, and bad evidence which all relates to our class.

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Justice Patrick LeSage, who served as the Commissioner for the Inquiry into Certain Aspects of the Trial and Conviction of James Driskell, began his report by stating that "Failure to disclose information to [James] Driskell is the central issue of this Inquiry" and that "At that heart of [this] ...

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This link is a document of a report that was made on behalf of the wrongful conviction of James Driskell. I believe this report to be brilliant. I read some of it and it really goes in detail about the case and who was involved. It has detail of everyone involved in the case including the judges, crowns, and defense. Explains the role of the jury and the many factors that led to the wrongful conviction such as tunnel vision, false information, flawed forensics, and many more.

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This website explains the case and talks about the man Reath Zanidean who committed perjury to help convict James Driskell.

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An increasingly shaky case against convicted killer James Patrick Driskell disintegrated altogether yesterday, adding the Winnipeg man's name to a growing list of miscarriages of justice.

Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler launched a swift chain of events around noon, when he used a special Criminal Code provision to order a new trial for the 46-year-old man.

Manitoba's Department of Justice promptly entered a stay of proceedings and called a public inquiry into the affair, ending Mr. Driskell's conviction without exonerating him.

He had been free on bail since late 2003, after serving a total of 12 years in Stony Mountain penitentiary convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his friend, Perry Dean Harder.

"Can you imagine if we had the death penalty in this country?" Mr. Cotler said in an interview yesterday.

"With capital punishment, there is no appellate review. We would have been executing innocent people."

Mr. Cotler said the Driskell case will live on as a "case study" in the dangers of police and prosecutorial tunnel vision, inadequate disclosure of evidence, false testimony and poor scientific analysis. "Let us hope we all learn lessons from this miscarriage of justice," he said.

"I'm still shaking, it's unbelievable," Mr. Driskell said in an interview yesterday, minutes after lawyers from the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted told him that his 15-year ordeal was over.

He was convicted in 1991, a year after Mr. Harder was last seen outside his rooming house in a pickup truck. The victim's remains were found in a shallow grave just outside Winnipeg three months after he disappeared. He had been shot at least once.

At the time of Mr. Harder's disappearance, he and Mr. Driskell were jointly charged with possession of stolen goods. The Crown theory was that Mr. Driskell killed his partner in crime to prevent him from giving damaging testimony.

Mr. Driskell never stopped asserting his innocence. Police stymied a Winnipeg Sun investigation in the early 1990s, and nearly a decade passed before AIDWYC and Centurion Ministries took up his cause. Their initial breakthrough involved DNA testing of several strands of hair that exculpated Mr. Driskell. They also wrested from the police a long-buried internal report that raised numerous questions about the case.

Yesterday morning, AIDWYC lawyer James Lockyer and co-counsel Alan Libman appeared at Mr. Driskell's door to deliver the good news.

"He was crying," Mr. Lockyer said in an interview. "He said: 'Now, I can hold my head high.' I think what he liked most of all was that they are going to hold an inquiry. It's unfortunate they wouldn't acknowledge his innocence, but we sort of dragged them to the edge of the cliff. We just couldn't quite push them off."

Mr. Lockyer said the growing list of wrongful convictions in Canada is horrifying. "Every time we latch on to one of these cases, look what happens," he said. "Driskell was lucky. Minister Cotler put a great effort into this case, yes, but only because it was put on a plate in front of him. I've got a dozen cases behind this, and we're not able to get to them. So, how many more are out there?"

Mr. Cotler said several key findings pointed toward a wrongful conviction, including:

Forensic analysis of three strands of hair found in Mr. Driskell's car that had supposedly linked him to Mr. Harder showed they did not belong to the victim.

The report that Winnipeg police suppressed for 10 years included information of great relevance to the defence.

The Crown failed to disclose that its two key witnesses, Ray Zanidean and John Gumieny, received "substantial" compensation after they testified that Mr. Driskell planned the murder. (Mr. Zanidean was also given immunity on an arson charge in Saskatchewan, apparently in return for his testimony.)

For 11 years after Mr. Driskell's trial, the Crown failed to disclose information that Mr. Zanidean likely committed perjury at the trial.

In another development yesterday, the province released a report on the case by Manitoba Provincial Court Judge John Enns. It said the action, "or inaction," of Crown prosecutors bordered on the criminal offence of gross negligence.

However, Manitoba Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh told reporters that a public inquiry would be more useful than pursuing criminal charges against police or prosecutors. "A commission of inquiry can tie together all the different pieces of review that have taken place," he said.

In the interview, Mr. Driskell said that after years of living in a tightly structured prison regimen, he has lost the capacity to make choices and shoulder routine responsibilities. He said he has also struggled to divide his time among eight children and 14 grandchildren.

Healing the psychological scars of a family that spent 15 years with the stigma of his conviction has added to the ordeal, he said. "It's been a struggle from the day I got out on bail. Getting my life together has been far more of a challenge then I ever dreamed it could be."

Mr. Driskell said he has never given any thought to launching a lawsuit or applying for compensation for his wrongful conviction. "I've been focused more on getting my life together," he said. "You try not to look forward to things."

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Wrongfully convicted, now Driskell holds his head high

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An increasingly shaky case against convicted killer James Patrick Driskell disintegrated altogether yesterday, adding the Winnipeg man's name to a growing list of miscarriages of justice. Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler launched a swift chain of events around noon, when he used a special Criminal Code provision to order a new trial for the 46-year-old man.

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This man in the picture is George Dangerfield. He was the prosecutor in the case of James Driskell. He is the reason James was convicted and the reason for putting an innocent man behind bars. George Dangerfield actually had 2 people paid so that they would lie for him. These false statements fooled the jury and led to the conviction. Not only did he pay someone but he also had them exonerated from a past crime they had committed. This was not the only case that he had done something like this either.

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This video talks about the wrongful conviction  James Driskell. The video not only explains the story of James but it also talks about the prosecutor and how "crooked" he was. This video is an example of tunnel  vision, false confessions, and unreliable informers which are all found in the textbook on page 98.

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A string of wrongful murder convictions... and the man who prosecuted them.

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This website/video gives a similar approach to just explaining the story of James Driskell but i like the way it was presented. I thought you might like it as well so i decided to include it. Its very neat and straight forward therefore you get all the information you need and easily. While being quick and straight forward it gets the job done and relates to the course with various terms used from our textbook.

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James Driskell
The Crime and the Trials
A Wrongful Conviction
James Driskell maintained his statement of his innocence, even when sentenced to life in prison with no chance of paroll for 25 years. He appealed his conviction as much as possible with no success. With the help of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), and many others, Driskell managed to get his case reviewed, and his conviction was squashed in 2005, by gradually eliminating the evidence used against him in his first trial.
For example:
Conclusion
In 2005, the federal cabinet granted James Driskell a new trial, according the section 696, and the Crown determined that the charges would be stayed. James Driskell, now a free and innocent man, spent 13 years in prison for the murder of one of his own friends, a first degree murder charge for a crime he didn't commit.
References
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/driskell/
http://www.aidwyc.org/Exonerations_2.html
http://www.ctvnews.ca/wrongly-convicted-james-driskell-offered-4m-deal-1.326680
http://www.duncaninvestigations.com/wrongfulmurder-experience.html
http://www.victimsofthestate.org/Canada/Driskell.htm
http://netk.net.au/Canada/DriskellBail.asp
http://injusticebusters.org/06/Driskell_James2_06%20.shtml
Wrongfully Convicted:
Introduction
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2007/02/15/driskell-cp-11308808.jpg
James Driskell was wrongfully convicted. In 1991, he was convicted of killing his friend, Perry Harder. But James continued to say he was innocent, and fought to get another trial, to have his case looked at once more. Finally, after 13 years in prison, Driskell was released on bail in 2003, and in 2005, the federal justice minister rejected the conviction and evidence as invalid. Driskell was finally a free man.
Murder?!
In June 1990, 29 year-old Perry Dean Harder was murdered. His body was found in a shallow grave close to a set of railroad tracks, near Brookside Blvd., in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The cause of death was determined to be multiple gunshot wounds to the chest.
The year before his death, police accused Harder of possession of stolen property. It was concluded that because Harder had planned to plead guilty, and maybe give evidence that James Driskell had been involved in the crime, Driskell had murdered Harder to prevent him from testifying.
The Trial and the Conviction
James Driskell's trial began on June 3, 1991, taking place before a judge and jury. Four main witnesses were used by the Crown to convict Driskell of first degree murder in the case of Perry Dean Harder on June 14, 1991.
Reath Zanidean and John Gumieny, both career criminals, with extensive criminal records, testified to having heard Driskell plot to kill Harder.
An RCMP officer testified for the Crown, saying that hairs found in the back of Driskell's van belonged to Harder.
Harder's girlfriend testified that he had been feeling pressure from Driskell to plead guilty to the stolen goods charges, and to take the ultimate blame for those charges.
Shakiv Kara, a Crown witness, presented a recorded conversation between him and Driskell, containing many statements that could be interpreted as admissions to Driskell's guilt.
A review of the police report, released in 2003, revealed that Winnipeg police had made a deal with Zanidean in order to recieve a false testimony against Driskell. Zanidean was to be charged with arson in the Swift Current, SK, home arson, but if he testified against Driskell. He is said to have recieved around $70, 000 during the duration of his witness-protection program. This destroyed one of the Crown's main pieces of evidence in testimony.
The taped conversation between Crown witness, Shakiv Kara, and Driskell that contained statements that could have been understood as Driskell admitting to the murder, which was another key piece of evidence turned out to be noncredible. Kara confessed much of his testimony was phony and accused police of intimidating him into testifying.
The three hairs found in the back of Driskell's van, that were said to have belonged to Perry Harder, were sent away to England for DNA testing (paid for by the government). The results showed that the hairs did not actually belong to Harder, in fact, all three hairs were not even from the same person. This revealed another piece of evidence that could be removed from the case.

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The Wrongfully Convicted: James Driskell

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James Driskell The Crime and the TrialsA Wrongful ConvictionJames Driskell maintained his statement of his innocence, even when sentenced to life in prison with no chance of paroll for 25 years. He appealed his conviction as much as possible with no success.

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http://www.innocencecanada.com/exonerations/james-driskell/
https://www.ctvnews.ca/wrongly-convicted-james-driskell-offered-4m-deal-1.326680
http://www.driskellinquiry.ca/pdf/final_report_jan2007.pdf
https://www.cbc.ca/news2/background/driskell/