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MINISTER OF JUSTICE REFERS MURDER CONVICTION TO NEW BRUNSWICK COURT OF APPEAL
OTTAWA, February 22, 2008 – The Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Niagara Falls, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced he has referred the murder conviction of Erin Michael Walsh to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, under the conviction review provisions of the Criminal Code.
“I am satisfied there is a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in Mr. Walsh’s 1975 conviction,”
said Minister Nicholson. “Mr. Walsh has submitted relevant new evidence that might have affected the verdict at his trial. He is therefore entitled to a remedy.”
Minister Nicholson made his decision to refer the case to the Court of Appeal to be heard as a new appeal after reviewing the Investigation Report and advice of independent counsel John Briggs, who was appointed to review the case; the submissions of Mr. Walsh’s counsel and of the Attorney General of New Brunswick; and the recommendations of Mr. Bernard Grenier, the Minister’s Special Advisor on the criminal conviction review process.
In December 2006, Mr. Walsh's counsel applied to the Minister of Justice for a review of the murder conviction pursuant to sections 696.1-696.6 of the Criminal Code, after new evidence surfaced which he alleged had not been disclosed to him at the time of Mr. Walsh’s trial. Convicted in 1975 in St. John, N.B. of the non-capital murder of Melvin Eugene Peters, Mr. Walsh was sentenced to life imprisonment. Appeals to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal were dismissed in July 1982 and November 1982.
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