N.B. court to review dying man's murder conviction

Federal Justice Minister Robert Nicholson has referred the case of a convicted murderer who has maintained his innocence for more than 32 years to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal.

Erin Michael Walsh, 59, was convicted of the slaying of Melvin "Chi Chi" Peters in 1975.

New evidence related to the murder conviction justifies a re-examination of the case, Nicholson said in a news release on Friday.

"I am satisfied there is a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in Mr. Walsh's 1975 conviction," Nicholson said.

Walsh, who has a long criminal record, was travelling from Toronto when he arrived in Saint John in August 1975. He ended up drinking with a group that included the victim at a beach in the south end of the city. When later leaving the area, a struggle took place in a car, a shotgun went off and Peters was killed.

Currently in the final stages of terminal cancer and relying on a wheelchair, Walsh appeared weak and fatigued as he appeared before the media on Friday to discuss the possibility of having his name cleared before his death.

"I wish that more than anything in my life," Walsh said Friday. "Not just for my sake, but my family's sake, who have also have to wear the shame and the guilt of being with a person who society deems among all its residents the most dreaded."

Last year, Walsh's fight for justice became the subject of a documentary by the CBC's The Fifth Estate.

In the documentary, Walsh admits to committing several crimes in his life, but insists he never murdered anyone.

"I haven't been a boy scout," he told reporters Friday. "I'm no saint. I had a shady past … but nothing in my past prepared me for what I endured as a wrongfully convicted individual."

The New Brunswick Court of Appeal will hear Walsh's case on March 14.

Jury was quick to convict 32 years ago

Walsh's lawyers asked that the review of Walsh's conviction be heard as quickly as possible because of his deteriorating condition.

"He's living on borrowed time," lawyer James Lockyer told the New Brunswick Court of Appeal on Friday.

Prosecutor Jeff Mockler said New Brunswick's attorney general agrees there appears to have been a miscarriage of justice and told the court the proceedings can be narrowed to a consideration of remedy in the case.

At Walsh's trial in 1975, prosecutors presented the case as open and shut, and the jury took only one hour to convict Walsh.

In December 2006, Walsh's lawyers applied to the justice minister to review the murder conviction after new evidence surfaced that Walsh alleged was not disclosed at the time of the trial. A conviction review can only be granted if all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.

Earlier appeals to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal were dismissed in July 1982 and November 1982.

Walsh has said he has documents from a 2005 access to information request that indicate evidence not revealed during his trial would have supported his defence and may have resulted in him being found not guilty.

The documents indicate police overheard a jail cell conversation between two people Walsh was travelling with suggesting one of them had committed the crime, he said. But the conversation was never admitted into evidence during the trial.

At the 1975 trial, one of the men involved in the conversation testified against Walsh, adding to the evidence that was used to convict him of second-degree murder. He was given a life sentence.

Walsh in final stages of colon cancer, lawyers say

Walsh was granted day parole in 1984 and full parole in 1986. But a string of crimes has seen him go in and out of prison since that time. He is currently out of jail on compassionate parole after being diagnosed with colon cancer in March 2007.

"His last wish, apart from thoughts of his family, is that he die with his name cleared of the murder of Mr. Peters," said a news release issued by his legal team.

"Since I was first asked to work on his case, eight months ago, I have been preoccupied with seeing his conviction overturned while he was still alive," Philip Campbell, one of Walsh's lawyers, said in the release.

"I am sure that the justice system in which he has placed his trust will finally be able to meet the challenge of his case in the time left to him."

Civil suit against prosecutor, police pending

Walsh also has a civil suit filed against William McCarroll, now a senior judge in Saint John, who was the Crown attorney in the case. The suit also names all the chiefs of police in Saint John between 1975 and the present, the RCMP, the province and the attorney general of Canada.

He is seeking $50 million in damages for the alleged deliberate attempt to suppress evidence.

If Walsh dies before the end of his civil case, his estate won't be entitled to any compensation.