Roméo Phillion (April 29, 1939 – November 2, 2015) was convicted of the 1967 murder of Ottawa firefighter Léopold Roy, after making a confession to police which he recanted two hours later.

Biography

Phillion spent 31 years in prison and five years on parole. The case was reopened in 2006, and in March 2009, the

Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode H ...

overturned his 1972 murder conviction and granted him a new trial, in part because a 1968 police report establishing a clear

alibi An alibi (, from the Latin, '' alibī'', meaning "somewhere else") is a statement by a person under suspicion in a crime that they were in a different place when the offence was committed. During a police investigation, all suspects are usually a ...

for Phillion had not been turned over to his defence lawyer in his original trial. He was assisted by the

Innocence Project Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and other forms of post-conviction relief, as well as advocates for criminal justice reform to prevent futur ...

and by lawyer James Lockyer, a director of the

Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

. On 29 April 2010, crown prosecutors withdrew the murder charge against him. In August 2006,

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

Vic Toews Victor Toews (; born September 10, 1952) is a Canadian politician and jurist. Toews is a justice of the Court of King's Bench of Manitoba. He represented Provencher in the House of Commons of Canada from 2000 until his resignation on July 9, ...

referred two questions about the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal: *Would the new information concerning the non-disclosure of certain material be admissible on appeal to the Court of Appeal? *Are the recent expert reports on the reliability of Mr. Phillion's confession admissible on appeal to the Court of Appeal? Phillion's thirty-one-year sentence was the longest ever served by a Canadian prisoner whose conviction was later overturned. In 2012, Roméo Phillion launched a $14 million lawsuit against the Ontario government. Phillion died on November 2, 2015, at the age of 76 in

Mississauga, Ontario Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

, after a long illness. He died before his lawsuit against the Ontario government was settled.

References

Timeline of the case

March decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal

cbc.ca, April 29, 2010

Notes

External links

CBC News In-depth: Romeo Phillion

at The Innocence Project 1939 births 2015 deaths Canadian people wrongfully convicted of murder Canadian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Overturned convictions in Canada People convicted of murder by Canada People from Ottawa {{Canada-crime-bio-stub People paroled from life sentence Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Canada

Biography

See also

References

Notes

External links