'Nightmare' over for man wrongfully convicted of 1st-degree murder decade ago - Winnipeg Free Press - Colin Perkel, Canadian Press:
"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....
"In an interview, lawyer James Lockyer said 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."
Read more: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/crown-drops-charges-against-man-convicted-of-first-degree-murder-10-years-ago-284150871.html
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"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....
"In an interview, lawyer James Lockyer said 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."
Read more: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/crown-drops-charges-against-man-convicted-of-first-degree-murder-10-years-ago-284150871.html
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