Jim Coffin’s mother would not purchase newspapers and stored the radio station mounted on the nation music channel.
She would preserve her son away from the small black-and-white TV and sneak him out of the home utilizing the again door.
For the primary 11 years of Jim’s life, he had no thought reporters would stand on his garden, ready to ask questions on his father who was discovered responsible of homicide in a high-profile case and subsequently executed in 1956.
He knew his father was lifeless, however was advised he had died in a automobile accident. It was solely on a visit again residence to Gaspé, Que., when that model of occasions was shattered.
“A few of the children have been teasing me about my dad dying and hanging,” stated Jim, 77, who now lives in Sechelt, B.C.
“I simply misplaced it… that is when my mom advised me what had actually occurred. She stated she could not preserve me away from it any longer.”
On Feb. 10, 1956, on the Bordeaux jail in Montreal, Wilbert Coffin was hanged for the homicide of 17-year-old Richard E. Lindsay.
Regardless of his conviction, he went to his grave swearing he had nothing to do with the homicide of the younger American vacationer.
The case captured the general public’s consideration very similar to a real crime thriller, spurring theories and galvanizing the publication of books, podcasts and flicks — a number of suggesting a wrongful conviction.
Practically 70 years later, the battle to clear Coffin’s identify continues as a brand new miscarriage of justice evaluate fee offers his household hope.
Household had religion within the system
Three years previous to Coffin’s execution, three People — a person, his son and a pal — went lacking within the woods whereas out on a searching journey in Gaspé.
Their stays, ravaged by animals, would not be discovered for weeks.
Police turned to Coffin, who helped within the search in 1953. He grew to become the final individual recognized to see the lads alive — after which the only real suspect
Coffin admitted to having met the lads and helped them when their truck bumped into mechanical issues earlier than their disappearance. He additionally admitted to being in possession of some objects stolen from the victims.
A jack of all trades and a prospector who knew the Gaspé woods just like the again of his hand, Coffin grew to become an “supreme suspect,” says Kathryn Campbell, prison defence lawyer and professor of criminology on the College of Ottawa.
She says former Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis possible felt the triple murder would have a damaging impact on tourism from American searching associations.
“He wanted to resolve this murder shortly,” stated Campbell. She would not symbolize the household, however has researched the case and produced a podcast about it.
“It simply appeared like a foregone conclusion from the start that he was going to be convicted and he was going to be hanged and it will be a message to the People.”
She claims the federal government was pushing the police for a decision and Coffin was an apparent and “weak” suspect.
The “hallmarks” of a miscarriage of justice have been evident, she says — police tunnel imaginative and prescient, judicial misconduct and ineffective help of counsel.
“His household had religion within the system,” stated Campbell. “They thought, ‘properly, he did not do it, so he isn’t going to be convicted, proper?'”
The jury unanimously convicted him of the homicide of the youngest sufferer, sentencing him to hold. Coffin was not held liable for the demise of the opposite two People.
The try to enchantment Coffin’s sentence was unsuccessful.
In 1963, Montreal journalist and politician, Jacques Hébert, printed a e-book — J’accuse les assassins de Coffin — elevating doubt on Coffin’s guilt and serving to launch the creation of a provincial fee to look into his conviction.
The controversy was so nice that in 1964, the Brossard Fee convened to research the case and heard from a whole bunch of witnesses. It will definitely decided he obtained a good trial.
In 2007, amid mounting stress from Coffin’s household and supporters, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion calling for a swift investigation into the case. Nothing a lot got here from the largely symbolic movement.
The federal Justice Division didn’t reply CBC’s questions relating to the result of the investigation. In an emailed assertion, it stated out of respect for “particular person privateness, we can not present any data on particular prison conviction opinions.”
Beforehand, the justice minister would determine if a case might be retried or despatched again to a Court docket of Enchantment in the event that they believed a miscarriage of justice possible occurred, says Campbell.
“That was authorities making selections about instances that had gone via authorities. So there was a battle of curiosity,” she stated.
However a brand new invoice handed in December 2024 seems to maneuver the evaluate course of for instances away from the justice minister and provides it to an unbiased fee devoted completely to miscarriage of justice opinions.
Imposing a full-time chief commissioner and 4 to eight different full-time or part-time commissioners, the federal authorities says Bill C-40 will make the method easier, faster and more fair for the potentially wrongfully convicted.
In an electronic mail, the Justice Division confirmed it is going to be in a position to take a look at posthumous instances like Coffin’s, but it surely declined to touch upon when the fee shall be established or the way it may select instances.
‘You by no means actually recover from it,’ says 94-year-old sister
Marie Coffin-Stewart tries to recollect her older brother as a form soul and a very good cook dinner with a way of humour. However the best way he died modified his legacy.
“You by no means actually recover from it … this has been a horrendous nightmare all my life,” stated Coffin-Stewart, her voice breaking.
Clasping her fingers collectively, she stated she by no means “dreamt that it will finish because it did.”
At 94 years outdated, Coffin-Stewart has by no means let up in her conviction that her brother was not what the federal government painted him out to be. She maintains he was a “scapegoat” and hopes that now, in any case these years, Canadians will begin to perceive how this case was mishandled.
Coffin’s lawyer didn’t name on any witnesses and didn’t have him testify.
Coffin-Stewart says her brother was transferred to Quebec Metropolis jail earlier than his execution in Montreal.
“To say it was a shock is placing it mildly. We could not imagine it,” stated Coffin-Stewart.
The final time she noticed him was in jail, via a sheet of glass.
“I could not hug him. I could not maintain him, contact him,” stated Coffin-Stewart. “The following time I noticed him, he was within the casket.”
One in every of 11 siblings, all of whom have since handed away, she says the circumstances of her brother’s demise hang-out her.
“There is not any means that he might have killed these People and I feel it is about time that one thing is completed and that the general public must be conscious,” stated Coffin-Stewart.
Advocates say a brand new federal evaluate course of might be the breakthrough they’re ready for. The CBC’s Matthew Kupfer explains.
Authorized non-profit hopeful new fee will assist
The household’s marketing campaign to clear Coffin’s identify formally began when Innocence Canada linked with them about 15 years in the past.
A Canadian authorized non-profit group, Innocence Canada advocates for the wrongly convicted and has helped exonerate 30 harmless individuals since 1993.
Director James Lockyer hopes the group can reveal {that a} miscarriage of justice could have occurred — and supply one other reminder in regards to the risks of the demise penalty, which was abolished in Canada in 1976.
“The wind in our sails for transferring the case ahead as greatest we will is the members of the family,” stated Lockyer. “It is only a case of arising towards this locked door that we have not been in a position to get in.”
That locked door refers to paperwork from the Brossard Fee. Though it generated supplies beforehand unavailable and interviewed individuals who didn’t testify on the trial, Lockyer says plenty of the work was positioned underneath a ban.
“Heaven is aware of why that is. We’re not speaking about state secrets and techniques right here,” stated Lockyer.
“I’ve by no means run right into a locked door like this earlier than and it’s a must to say to your self, ‘why is it there within the first place?’
“Makes me extremely suspicious.”
Only in the near past, Lockyer says the group enlisted the assistance of a brand new Quebec Metropolis lawyer to evaluate French and English materials which could assist its case.
Unable to get materials Lockyer thinks would allow them to problem Coffin’s conviction, he says the brand new federal fee — possible given subpoena and investigatory powers — will have the ability to get hold of entry.
‘I do not wish to die the son of a convicted assassin’
With doubt circling Coffin’s conviction, a number of theories have popped up through the years.
A 1986 Radio-Canada report steered a number of individuals could have seen a Jeep doubtlessly carrying a separate group of People. One man advised Radio-Canada he thought the licence plate regarded prefer it was from Pennsylvania. The court docket didn’t take this into consideration.
One other idea suggests a Quebec man, Philippe Cabot, could be liable for the triple murder. In 2006, years after his demise, his daughter Micheline Cabot told Radio-Canada that her brother admitted he was witness to their father working over one of many People along with his automobile and taking pictures the 2 others with a firearm.
Micheline’s brother, Jean-Gabriel, and her father, Phillippe Cabot, have been each lifeless on the time of this revelation, which is rumour and never receivable in court docket.
Jim Coffin says he needs to see his father’s identify cleared in his lifetime. He says some police recordsdata in regards to the case have been sealed for 99 years. Quebec’s Justice Ministry didn’t reply to CBC’s request for clarification relating to the length or motive behind the restrictions.
“I am gonna reside lengthy sufficient to guarantee that they see [the files] open,” stated Coffin. “If he might stroll as much as these gallows, I can keep round.
“I do not wish to die the son of a convicted assassin.”
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