A 3rd First Nations man lately exonerated within the 1973 killing of a Winnipeg father has filed a lawsuit towards all three ranges of presidency, searching for damages for his wrongful conviction in a case that concerned racism, police brutality, false confessions and a prosecutor linked to quite a lot of different wrongful convictions in Manitoba.
Clarence Woodhouse, now 73, was one in all 4 younger males from Pinaymootang First Nation convicted by a jury in 1974 within the killing of Ting Fong Chan, 40, a restaurant employee and father of two discovered overwhelmed and stabbed close to a downtown building website.
Woodhouse was exonerated within the case in October throughout a quick court docket look the place Manitoba Court docket of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal declared him harmless and apologized for a case he known as “contaminated” by systemic racism, from the investigation to the prosecution to the adjudication.
Court docket heard throughout that look Woodhouse had all the time maintained his innocence, and that the case towards him and the opposite younger males was “nearly fully” based mostly on manufactured police confessions.
Nonetheless, proof about police practices on the time and Woodhouse’s familiarity with the English language “undermines their reliability and veracity,” Michele Jules, govt director of the Manitoba Prosecution Service, stated on the time.
Woodhouse filed the assertion of declare within the Court docket of King’s Bench on Feb. 7, naming the provincial and federal attorneys basic, the province and the Metropolis of Winnipeg as defendants, in a lawsuit alleging a negligent police investigation, malicious prosecution, false arrest, police conspiracy and rights violations, together with a failure to reveal related proof to the defence.
A few of these claims contain Crown lawyer George Dangerfield, who died in 2023 and was additionally the prosecutor in four other wrongful conviction cases.
The most recent court docket submitting comes nearly a 12 months after two different males wrongfully convicted in the identical case filed a similar lawsuit. Allan Woodhouse (who is not associated to Clarence Woodhouse) and Brian Anderson were also acquitted of murder in the case in July 2023.
The fourth man concerned within the case — Clarence Woodhouse’s brother, Russell Woodhouse — was convicted of manslaughter and died of most cancers in 2011. His case is awaiting a choice from Canada’s justice minister following a posthumous review of his manslaughter conviction.
Police did not examine alibi
Woodhouse’s lawsuit says he was 21 and spoke little English when he was arrested, and describes him as a day college survivor and a “weak particular person with a restricted training.”
The lawsuit says when Woodhouse was taken into custody, police informed him they’d witnesses accusing him of being concerned in Chan’s killing, confirmed him the false confessions of two of his co-accused, accused him of mendacity, subjected him to verbal abuse associated to his Indigenous heritage and bodily assaulted him.
It says on the time of Chan’s killing, Woodhouse was asleep at his house in Winnipeg — an alibi police by no means investigated.
“On account of the conduct of the law enforcement officials, Clarence signed a false confession to cease the abuse. The false confession was written in fluent English although Clarence couldn’t communicate or write in fluent English,” the lawsuit says.
Woodhouse served greater than 10 years of his life sentence in jail earlier than being granted parole with situations, the court docket submitting says, and whereas incarcerated was “subjected to racism by staff and unbiased contractors of Correctional Service Canada.”
The lawsuit says whereas the town oversees the Winnipeg Police Service and its officers, it was the province that prosecuted the case and the federal authorities that is liable for the Parole Board of Canada and jail authorities.
The lawsuit additionally describes Woodhouse’s remedy by police and Dangerfield, and his continued imprisonment and time on parole as an harmless particular person, as “merciless and weird,” saying it “outrages society’s sense of decency.”
The court docket submitting seeks damages on quite a lot of grounds, together with lack of liberty and repute, ache and struggling, lack of revenue and alternative to earn revenue and “the humiliation and shame related to” being wrongfully convicted.
Spokespeople for the town and the province stated by way of electronic mail on Tuesday there could be no remark whereas the lawsuit is earlier than the courts. A spokesperson for the federal Justice Division stated it is reviewing the lawsuit “and can file a response in the end.”
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