Review and Release
Milgaard appealed his conviction several times, but was blocked both by bureaucracy and by a justice system unreceptive to those who were not willing to admit their guilt. His formal application was completed in 1988, but was not considered until 1991 after Liberal MP, Lloyd Axworthy addressed the Parliament: "...I wish to speak of a travesty of justice. I speak of the plight of David Milgaard who has spent the last twenty-one years of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. Yet for the last two years, the Department of Justice has been sitting on an application to reopen his case…. But rather than review these conclusive reports, rather than appreciate the agony and trauma of the Milgaard family, the Minister of Justice refuses to act."
Parliament acted, and rejected Milgaard's application for a Conviction Review. In her 1996 autobiography Time and Chance, former Prime Minister (then Justice Minister) Kim Campbell devotes an entire chapter to Milgaard. In this she claims that one of the main reasons for the delay in acting on the request to reopen his case was due to the fact that Milgaard's lawyers continually added new documentation to the file, which slowed the process in regard to when she could begin the review proceedings.
Read more about this topic: David Milgaard
Famous quotes containing the words review and/or release:
“Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“The near touch of death may be a release into life; if only it will break the egoistic will, and release that other flow.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)