N.B. reaches conditional settlement with 2 men wrongfully convicted of 1983 murder

The New Brunswick government has reached a conditional settlement with Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie, who were acquitted last month after being wrongly convicted of murder nearly 40 years ago.

Ron Dalton, co-president of the non-profit organization that represents wrongfully convicted people and took on the Saint John men's case in 2018, said Thursday that he could not discuss the details of the settlement.

He said he expects non-disclosure agreements to be signed by the parties.

But the government "got off rather cheaply, in my humble view, because of the desperate circumstances that the two gentlemen are in," he said.

Mailman, 76, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in November and given three months to live, so "no amount of money is going to change the trajectory of what's left of his life very much," Dalton said.

"He does hope to have a nicer apartment to leave his common-law wife in when he does pass, but he knows that the end is near for him."

In Gillespie's case, the day he got acquitted, he had to move out of the halfway house where he was living and lost the part-time job he had there.

"So he was physically and financially worse off after he got acquitted than when he was serving his life sentence," said Dalton.

He's now living in a one-room apartment in a former Saint John hotel, "so he's looking forward to getting into some better digs and having some more comfort for what's left of his days.

"He's over 80 years old, so they both know that the time clock is ticking."

The two men could not be reached for comment.

Office of the Attorney General and Premier Blaine Higgs's office did not respond to requests for comment.

But Bruce Macfarlane of the Executive Council Office, told CBC, "We can confirm a tentative deal has been reached."

He did not respond to other questions, such as the amount of the deal, how it's structured, or whether it comes with an apology.

No apology yet

Mailman and Gillespie were convicted of second-degree murder in May 1984 in the November 1983 death of George Leeman, whose beaten and burned body was found in the woods at Rockwood Park.

They were sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole, for 18 years.

The two always maintained their innocence.

In December, the federal justice minister overturned their convictions, saying new information led him to believe "a miscarriage of justice likely occurred." He granted them a new trial.

But On Jan. 4, the Crown presented no evidence and Court of King's Bench Chief Justice Tracey DeWare ruled Mailman and Gillespie were not guilty. She also apologized.

"The justice system in this case failed Mr. Mailman, Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Leeman," she wrote.

"For that, as Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench of New Brunswick, I offer my sincere apology."

Mailman and Gillespie have not received a formal apology from the Saint John Police Force, the Attorney General's Office or the premier, according to Dalton.

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"They tend to apologize with their chequebooks."

Innocence Canada was not involved in the settlement negotiations, he said.

"Our organizational effort pretty much ended when their convictions were overturned and the acquittals were entered."

But "I've got a bit of a personal interest in this one," said Dalton, who served alongside Mailman and Gillespie at Renous prison in 1990s and has also been exonerated for a murder he didn't commit.

Compensation rare

Fewer than half of the wrongly convicted people in this country have ever received compensation, according to Dalton.

"I'm delighted that a satisfactory settlement has come to fruition for these two gentlemen."

Innocence Canada has been involved with cases in other provinces where Dalton alleges governments "have literally waited for someone to die and not had to settle with them at all."

He believes the national media attention that Mailman and Gillespie's case garnered may have helped.

"There is a cost to injustice," he said.

"With 40 years of your life gone —half of Mr. Gillespie's life and over half of Mr. Mailman's life —  the least we can do is try and make the rest of their days somewhat comfortable."