Uncover - S7 "Dead Wrong" E4: Fresh Evidence

Episode Date: June 21, 2020

The day after Glen is convicted of murder he starts to work on his appeal. A new lawyer and an ex-RCMP private investigator find fresh evidence that should help get Glen a new trial. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/uncover-season-7-dead-wrong-transcripts-listen-1.5612940

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Okay, so what I did is I came up here to see how long it would take for Brenda to get from here to where she was murdered, okay? This is Fred Fitzsimmons, the private investigator who was hired for Glen Assoon's appeal. Fred and I are going to drive the route that Brenda Way may have taken the night of her murder and see how that contradicts the statement of Robin Hartrick. A taxi driver told police he saw Brenda at 4.05 a.m. She was hitchhiking. Robin claimed to have seen Glenn near the scene of the murder at 4.15 a.m.,

10 minutes later, and that Glenn said she is gone. You said she was seen in this building? At what time? According to the witness, it would be around 5 after 4. I'm going to run the stopwatch, and we're going to drive as quickly as we can. No, not as quickly. Following the speed limit. Following the speed limit. Now we'll turn right on Maple Street. I drive this route quite often because I go to the grocery store and my house is up this way.

So this is absolutely the shortest, most direct way. Here we are turning on Albro Lake and 109 is the first apartment building here. So let's pull right into 109. In the back. first apartment building here so let's pull right into 109 in the back okay let's go in the back then this place always gives me the willies to think about this brutal murder happening right here. So here we are at exactly the murder scene. I saw it hit stop.

And that was 7 minutes, 27 seconds. So had Brenda left at exactly 4.05 and got picked up right away, conceivably she could have gotten right here at 4.12 and a half, been murdered, and then Glenn out on the street immediately after. It just doesn't add up. No. No time for the murder. No time for a pre-murder no time for nothing for anything even though we don't know who the culprit is there's no question in my

mind it wasn't Glenn and there hasn't been a question since I bought a month after I started looking into it you don't have to be a genius to do an investigation. You just have to follow it up. I'm Tim Bousquet, and this is Uncover Dead Wrong. Episode 4, Fresh Evidence. On September 17th, 1999, the jury found Glenn Eugene Assoon guilty of the second-degree murder of Brenda Way. Exactly three months later, on December 17th, Justice Suzanne Hood sentenced Glenn to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 and a half years. Before he was sentenced, Glenn started to work on his appeal from his jail cell. Glenn started to work on his appeal from his jail cell. In his own handwriting Glenn spelled out the reasons he should get a new trial.

Glenn reached out for help with his appeal. He wrote a letter to Reuben Hurricane Carter. You might have heard of Carter. He was the boxer whose wrongful conviction was the subject of a Bob Dylan song, and then a movie. By 1999, Carter was living in Toronto, and was the executive director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted. Carter responded immediately, but he told Glenn he couldn't do anything until Glenn exhausted all his appeal possibilities. Eventually, though, Glenn did get help.

I can't remember if we'd even spoken by telephone at that point, but we went to this little room in the prison, and I don't have time to waste. I'm not much for small chat. We got a guy who's just been convicted of murder. He's serving life in jail, and he represented himself at trial. So he needs a lawyer. Lawyer Jerome Kennedy remembers his first meeting with Glenn at Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick. I need to know something about his trial. So I go into this room, and the room was literally with Glenn at Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick. So I go into his room, and the room was literally about three telephone boxes. He's sitting across the desk.

I think Glenn at that point had the black or the dark glasses. And he proceeds to tell me he's innocent. And after 20 years in the criminal justice system, 20-odd years, there were lots of people who told me they were innocent. So that's not unusual. But he won't stop. So finally, I literally yell at him, Will you shut the F up? I'm here to try to help you get a lawyer,

because you obviously haven't done a very good job. And there was a shouting match that went on for a while, because he said, I'm telling you I'm innocent, and you're not listening. You're like everyone else. I said, No, I'm not. I that went on for a while. And he said, I'm telling you, I'm innocent and you're not listening. You're like everyone else. I said, no, I'm not. I want to get you a lawyer. Glenn remembers the meeting as well.

We almost got into a fistfight. Almost got into a fistfight. Because I'm fucking innocent. Jerome didn't know the players. And I remember him asking me, you know, he said, what do you think our chances are, Glenn? I want to ask you that question. And I thought about it for a minute.

I said, 50-50. He said, I think it's more than that. I said, you don't know the players. Jerome Kennedy is a fine lawyer. But Jerome Kennedy is from Newfoundland. He knew nothing about Dave McDonald or the Crown or the system in Nova Scotia and propensity behavior of wrongful convictions that come out of that same goddamn courthouse, that Supreme Court in Nova Scotia. How'd you find out about Glenn Assoon? Glenn, apparently, or someone on Glenn's behalf,

had contacted the Aidwick office in Toronto. I was the only representative of Aidwick in Atlantic Canada, in fact, the only lawyer in Atlantic Canada who was doing any work for Aidwick. Aidwick is the association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted. That was the original name for what is now known as Innocence Canada. So, I think it was Glenn's brother contacted me. He indicated that Glenn had gone to trial, unrepresented, which is always disastrous. The fact that the system can allow an individual to go to trial on murder unrepresented.

So right away I knew that the case had to be looked at. And then what I understood was that Glenn Assoon was going to appeal without a lawyer. And I'm going, you know, this can't happen. You can't have an individual who's representing himself at trial. And then he's going to do his appeal. And anyway, we settled down and we had a great conversation. And in hindsight, it just struck me. Because one of the common themes we see with guys and ladies who have been wrongly convicted

is they maintain their innocence forever. They will not concede guilt. And Glenn was so adamant. And I went away that day thinking, he could be innocent. Jerome Kennedy eventually decides to take on Glenn's case himself. The first thing Kennedy does is hire a private investigator, one who comes highly recommended, ex-RCMP officer Fred Fitzsimmons.

I'm originally from Moncton, New Brunswick. I spent roughly 30 years with the RCMP and after I retired, I became a private investigator, owned my own company, one man band. When I talk to people about you, they say two things. One, that you were very successful in your career. I mean, you're brass, right? that you were very successful in your career. I mean, you're brass, right? I was successful in investigations, but I wasn't too successful in getting promoted because of my attitude. I want to get into that. What's your experience with the chain of command, with those above you? I had some commanders were good and some commanders didn't like the way I operated because I was too outspoken. Tell me about that. Well, I, I find that kind of hard to explain.

If, if people like you in the force and you're going to get, you're going to get promoted. And if you're not one of the boys, you're not going to get promoted. And I tended to piss people off a bit. Well, okay, so you're working as an investigator, and then you get a call from this fellow, Jerome Kennedy, a Newfoundland. Well, one day I get a call from Jerome, and he says that he's going to be working on a file, and he wanted to know if I would be interested in working on it. So I said, what is it? So he just gave me the name, didn't mean too much to me. I knew the name, but that was about

it. And we were chatting and during the conversation he asked me if I'd be willing to look into this incident. And I said, yeah, yeah, no problem. And he says, well, he said, you're not going to get paid.

I said, I guess it doesn't make much difference. We'll work on it anyway. So I did. Can you tell me about you meeting Glenn? Jerome and I went to Dorchester. And I met him up there. What did you think of Glenn? Oh, complete asshole.

Okay. Just because he's an asshole doesn't mean you convict him for murder. Kennedy and Fitzsimmons begin their investigation. The first thing they do is look at the disclosure. Disclosure is all the evidence collected by police and the Crown. By law, everything must be turned over to the defense. I went back to my office in St. John's, and I had this big room that I worked out of because the cases I was working on were massive in terms of boxes and boxes of material. I remember sitting down this day to read, start reading Glenn's disclosure.

While Jerome Kennedy is going through the disclosure and the court transcripts, Fred Fitzsimmons begins his work on the ground. Fitzsimmons will reinvestigate everything the police did and also look at what they didn't investigate. He starts with the main witness, Robin Margaret Hartrick, who Fitzsimmons calls Margaret. Remember that Robin had been killed before the trial, and therefore could not testify or be cross-examined. Robin said she saw Glenn the night of the murder. According to Fitzsimmons, Robin's name appears in a police officer's notebook on the very day of the murder but nothing else

nothing more until almost a year later when Robin got picked up by the police when that man was found dead under the McDonald Bridge Robin was high on crack cocaine and took the police on tangents about dreams

and psychic visions Fitzsimmons begins by looking at that statement and took the police on tangents about dreams and psychic visions. Fitzsimmons begins by looking at that statement, including the questions police ask Robin. He reads that statement out loud to me. Okay, what can you tell us about the murder, Brenda Way? I left Linda Grandy's place around 4.15 a.m., and Glenn Assoon was coming up the walkway towards the way. I left Linda Grandy's place around 4.15 a.m. and Glenn soon was coming up the walkway towards the building. He said to me, well, she's finally gone now. The weight is off my shoulder.

So what's interesting here is two things. First of all, in her telling, she sees Glenn. Glenn says, I just killed Brenda or she's dead yeah words to that effect and what does she do she doesn't say why did you kill brenda or what what the hell where is she she says what time is it yeah uh and this murderer just killed someone is shaking so she holds his hand so that she can read the watch. It's kind of absurd on the face of it, right? Absolutely. Yeah, when did you learn for sure that Brenda was dead? When I went to Lloyd's States that morning, he told me that she was dead. Lloyd says, oh, Brenda is dead.

I saw it on the news. It wasn't on the news until that night. See, it's stuff like that, eh? It's stuff like that that you have to pick up on. And it's stuff like that that you have to check. If you're an investigator, that's, you know, I mean, just because somebody says something doesn't necessarily mean that it's correct. You have to check it.

Fitzsimmons finishes reading Robin's statement. Were you drinking? I was doing drugs. Are you sure these events are correct? Yes. That's the entire statement. I mean, there is a witness, okay, and you take a two-page statement from them? No.

No. No. When you're taking a statement, especially on a murder, you ask all kinds of questions, and then you go try to verify. There's nothing in there that she said that was actual truth. And whoever took the statement should have, in my opinion, reviewed the statement, gone and seen the witnesses, and tried to verify what she had to say.

As you heard earlier, Fitzsimmons used other witness accounts to build a timeline for Brenda's movements the night of the murder. In Robin's statement that she saw Glenn at 4.15 a.m., supposedly just after he killed Brenda, couldn't fit in with that timeline. Fitzsimmons also points out that another witness, Jason Sparks, who we heard about in episode two, said he was with Brenda at a crack house at about 5 a.m., 45 minutes after the time Robin told police she saw Glenn near the murder scene. In a sworn affidavit for the Appeal Court of Nova Scotia, Fitzsimmons lays out all the problems he encounters with the investigation. He states,

He gives more examples. There was a man seen at 5 a.m., 150 feet from the murder scene. Fitzsimmons could find no indication that police tried to get a statement from him. Stephen Engle, who was delivering newspapers to 109 Albert Lake Road, told police he saw a black man pounding on the door at 5.05 a.m. and later driving a car that was speeding out of the back parking lot. Engel said police never followed up with him, and Fitzsimmons didn't find any police notes that said they tried to locate the man in the car. Fitzsimmons continues with the most damning criticism of all.

He writes, There is no better example of the lack of thoroughness of the police investigation than the failure to follow up and investigate other suspects who were identified in the police file. I still see the cover today. This document hits me. Other suspects. I still see the cover today. This document hits me. Other suspects.

Like out of five or six volumes, this is unusual in a police file that they've got a volume of other suspects. And I open it up. I start reading. This is amazing. As a criminal defense lawyer, Jerome Kennedy knows the value of other suspects. And so I'm reading and I'm going like, wow. They had named four or five possible other suspects. And one of the things we do at trial as lawyers, which I've done in the past,

if you have a viable suspect which the police have offered up, then one of the things you do is you make application to the court to lead evidence of other suspects, because that can raise a reasonable doubt. Kennedy was surprised to find this in the disclosure, because there was no mention of it in the transcript of the trial. And I remember getting on the phone to Fred and said, like, what do we do with this? And telling Glenn. I said to Glenn, like, how come this wasn't raised at trial? And I remember Glenn saying they wouldn't let me or I couldn't. And if you actually look at the transcript of the trial, what you'll see is that Glenn's focus when he asked questions, he was actually quite good and focused until the prosecutor would object.

And then he'd lose his train of thought, and then he'd go astray. And I'm saying to Glenn, was any of this discussed with you? Was any of this raised? This is gold in the hands of a criminal defense lawyer. When I was researching this story, one thing that very much disturbed me was that all these violent men were living in Dartmouth, right in my neighborhood. In the initial investigation, police noted five possible suspects. One of those was Glenn, but Glenn had an alibi which seems to have been accepted by police at the time. The other four all had violent histories and were known to police.

Police called them third-party suspects. I don't want to be bad-mouthing any investigator, but I think that there may have been tunnel vision on this one. Fitzsimmons doesn't want to publicly name the suspects, but their names are in the court records. The first is Carl Joseph Francis, a 26-year-old with a lengthy and violent criminal record. There are no notes as to why he was a suspect,

or if he was ever eliminated as a suspect. why he was a suspect, or if he was ever eliminated as a suspect. Another suspect was Robert George Poole. Poole lived at 9 Lawrence Street, the very same building where Brenda was staying. There had been a police warning about Poole in 1995, where he was described as a violent sex offender. Poole's parole officer had told police, if you people have a case where a woman, probably a prostitute, is badly beaten and left for dead, he will be your man.

The police notes don't say how or even if they investigated Poole. Next was Avery Greenough. He had a history of violence, including a 17 and a half year sentence for violent rape. He knew Brenda. The night Brenda was killed, Greenough was at the bar at the Dartmouth Inn. It was noted he was acting differently than usual. He was slurring his words and a bartender at the inn told police she had to call security around 1.30 a.m. because Greeno was getting too close. There are also notes from police at the time that Greeno was overheard talking about slitting girls' throats

The Dartmouth Inn bar was where a taxi driver dropped Brenda off at 2 a.m. the night of the murder When she got out of the cab, she got into the passenger side of a vehicle A red blazer with a silver stripe down the side of it. At around that time, Greeno drove a red blazer, and an unidentified police officer noted that Greeno was a good possibility as a suspect. Greeno told police he didn't buy the red blazer until November 21st, which was nine days after the murder. But there are no indications this was checked into.

During Fitzsimmons' investigation, nine years after the murder, he actually tracks down that blazer and buys it for $500. He hires a forensic specialist from Ontario to check it out, but nothing comes up. And then there was another fella from Newfoundland that they didn't have as one of the five. The next person Fitzsimmons is referring to is Ashley Herridge. Although there are early police notes on him, he is never included in the initial list of other suspects. But they took a hair sample from him. So I tried to find the hair sample.

Couldn't find it, okay? And I tried to find the statement. Couldn't find it. Herridge was known to be in North Dartmouth that night of the murder. At 4.30 a.m., he was seen picking up a woman wearing a jacket that looked like the jacket Brenda was wearing the night she was murdered. Herridge later told police he did indeed pick up a sex worker that night,

and he stayed with the woman at his house until 8.30 a.m. This timing was not backed up by Herridge's roommate, who police questioned, but this was not followed up on. If you're taking a hair sample from an individual, in my opinion, from my police work experience, if you're taking a hair sample, he's obviously a suspect. Now sometimes when I'm speaking, if you don't know how an investigation goes, you may say, well that's not relevant. Well that's pretty damn relevant.

I mean they took a hair sample from this guy, they never took a hair sample from anybody else. Okay? When I found that out, I learned that he had a vehicle that particular night and the next day his vehicle was not seen. Okay? He took his vehicle somewhere to have some work done on it. And that was the end of it.

Well, I mean, all that should have been followed up. The big thing with that is that, you know, they zeroed in on Glenn, and I said, of course they could have charged me for it and convicted me with what they had on him. That was in my opinion. Fitzsimmons is feeling pretty good about what he's finding for Glenn's appeal.

There's just one problem. These suspects' names and the police notes about them were in the boxes and boxes of disclosure given to Glenn at the time of his trial. So they were technically available to Glenn, but he didn't know what to do with them. I used to call Jerome. I'd be happy as hell. I'd say, oh, geez, I found this out. Okay. Well, that's not fresh evidence. So we went on and went like that for a couple of months.

I said, Jerome, what the fuck did you hire me for? I said, I'm coming up with stuff that I think that is good. And you're telling me that it's not fresh evidence. This doesn't make any sense. And he says, no, that's not fresh evidence. It was known at the time. Then why wasn't it brought out? It wasn't brought out because Glenn was defending himself. If somebody else had been defense counsel

and this stuff had been brought to their attention, then they could handle it whatever way they wanted to. and brought to their attention, then they could handle it whatever way they wanted to. What Kennedy wants to strengthen his case is fresh or new evidence. Kennedy tells Fitzsimmons to keep looking. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs.

We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. While Jerome Kennedy is preparing the grounds for appeal,

he is also often talking to Glenn in prison. All he talked about was these innocents, and I keep getting, not getting mad, but saying, Glenn, you represent yourself. You know, I got to look at this issue of, should you have had counsel? Did the judge hear or not give you counsel? I've got to look at the issues of the Crown's evidence, whether or not the evidence was admissible. These are the kinds of things I was explaining to him.

But in his mind, in the mind of an innocent person, why shouldn't I represent myself? Everyone will see I'm innocent. Unfortunately, that's a fallacy that presumes that the other participants in the system are going to be fair. And they believe you're innocent also. Well, that didn't happen. And so meeting with Glenn was always somewhat torturous in that respect,

trying to get him to focus on the evidence. Like, Glenn, I need help here. Tell me about this evidence. I met with Glenn a number of times. But by this point in time, though, Glenn had significantly deteriorated in terms of his mental health. Glenn was placed in the Shepardy Healing Center, a facility inside Dorchester Penitentiary,

for inmates with mental health issues. Kennedy was worried. And man, there were a couple of times I didn't think he was going to make it. It really added pressure to the appeal because I've got a client now who is on the verge of a significant nervous breakdown. But just think about it. You're innocent. No one is listening to you.

I didn't kill that woman. I love Brenda. I remember those words. I love Brenda. And no one's listening to you. Usually, Kennedy would leave all the investigating on his cases up to the investigator. But he felt at a disadvantage because he didn't know the area. So he would travel, both to visit Glenn at Dorchester in New Brunswick

and to meet Fred Fitzsimmons in Dartmouth. So myself and Fred, we went to the alleged crime scene and where the alleged murder weapon was found however many months later. And I can remember we were looking at all this, where the crack houses were and where this bar was that Glenn is supposed to have hung out. And then Fred says, see that over there? What, Fred? were and where this bar was that Glenn is supposed to have hung out and then Fred says see that over there what Fred that apartment yeah he said come on so now we got to jump over a fence and we're jumping over fences and going to

he said Michael McRae lived there so what said, what? McRae is not named, though, in the book of suspects. The apartment building Fitzsimmons is referring to is on Jackson Road, about 150 meters from where Brenda's body was found. Fitzsimmons tells Kennedy he is possibly on to a new suspect that police did not investigate at the time of Brenda's murder. But my job wasn't to find out who did it. And even if I had found out who did it, do you think that anybody would have believed me?

That's why I went to the police department, because I wanted them to come with me and know what I was doing and interview these people. I went to the chief of police, okay, Frank Beasley. Now, I knew Frank from working with him when I was in the force. So he's now the chief, and I'm now a civilian investigator. I said, listen, Frank, I've been retained by defense counsel, and I'm looking to the assumed matter I said I don't think he's guilty and he listened to me and he said what would you like and I said well what I would like is have you supply me with a man and go out and do a thorough investigation

on this and see how it turns out so anyway he said well Jesus said I can't do that he's been convicted I said yes he's been convicted but he's been convicted, but he's innocent. In my opinion, he's innocent. Well, they went to the Crown and then the Crown came back and then they wanted to have a meeting with me. And I go in and I'm all hepped up for this meeting. And they go on for about an hour. And then I started asking them some questions.

And then they're sitting there with a dumb look on their face and I said, well do you fellas know anything about this investigation? Well we haven't reviewed it. I said, well it's fairly obvious. Now I get dirty. I said, it's fairly obvious you haven't reviewed it because I said, I'm sitting here trying to tell you stuff and you're looking at me as if I'm half nuts. And I said, well what about this? What about that? What about something else? We're not at liberty to discuss this. What the fuck are we here for then? So just to be clear about this, you get into your investigation

and you're so adamant that Glenn is not responsible for the murder that you go right to the chief of police of the police force that ultimately convicted him. And you say, you had the wrong man. You convicted the wrong man. And I want to show you the evidence. And they... And just like I told you, what I wanted them to do was reinvestigate it. This really ticked me. One of them said, well, he said he was convicted. He said, courts convicted him, so he must be guilty. I said, that's a good fucking attitude to have. I said, I'm sitting here with a bunch of stuff

that I think should be checked, and UFOs don't even give a shit? Okay? So, you know, that was it. I don't know if they'll even admit today that they made a mistake. Fitz Simmons gets no help from the Halifax Police. Michael McRae was a violent offender, in and out of jail,

and was first on Halifax Police radar as early as 1993, two years before Brenda was killed. McRae was released and living in North Dartmouth at the time of Brenda's murder. Not only was McRae living very close to where Brenda's body was found, but a witness told Fitz Simmons that McRae and his girlfriend moved out of the apartment just a day or two after the murder. They moved out so quickly, they abandoned their cat and left their furniture right on the sidewalk for all to see, right on Jackson Road, a street where police had conducted

a post-crime canvas of the neighborhood. We clearly isolated him. I thought he was a good suspect, because Fred had tracked him down. He lived in an apartment building very near where the murder took place. And so I wrote letters. And that's the first I remember of how we tried to obtain information on McGray. By the time of Glenn's approaching appeal, more than 10 years since the murder, the Halifax police, as well as the RCMP, know plenty about Michael McGray, because McGray is no longer just another violent offender.

He is a confirmed and convicted serial killer, with a long and gruesome list of murders. and gruesome list of murders. Kennedy makes requests for discovery from the Crown. The Crown then requests information from the RCMP and the Halifax Police. I remember starting writing letters to the Crown saying, like, do you have any evidence? Is there any information I can get on this? And I also knew from my discussions with Fred,

there's databases they use. You have the CPIC, which is the general one across the country. But if someone's been convicted in a local district or province, then the Halifax police, for example, could have their own database. Then there's another database of violent offenders where information is kept. I don't know if I had any expectations, but I remember writing letters, can you please provide us with VICLAS reports?

VICLAS is the RCMP National Database of Violent Offenders. They said I was fishing. Well, we were fishing, but we also, I think, in one of the letters to the Crown, indicate, look, the guy lived, he was in Halifax at the time. Kennedy and Fitzsimmons know about McRae's other killings. They were national news, splashed all over the newspapers. Kennedy and Fitzsimmons know how brutal they were. They know his modus operandi, the way he liked to kill.

And those ways matched with how Brenda Way was killed. So, we thought that we had significant or enough information to make a request for those documents, but they basically shut us down. They didn't give us anything.

Then we, if I remember correctly, filed a specific affidavit saying, by the way, Court of Appeal, here's your killer, right here. We're naming him for you. Even without the cooperation of the RCMP and Halifax Police, Kennedy feels he has built a strong case and is ready to move forward with the appeal.

And he wants to move quickly because of Glenn's mental state. I've got an individual who represented himself at trial. We've got good grounds for appeal. I mean, this is one of the strongest appeals I'd ever been involved in. We had hearsay evidence. We had jailhouse informants. We had everything that spoke to a wrongful conviction present in this case. Kennedy appears before the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal on January 17, 2006. There are three judges, Joel Fischow, Elizabeth Roscoe, and Jill Hamilton.

Glenn has now been in prison for almost nine years. Glenn was there that day. I had to make a special application for him to be present in court for almost nine years. Glenn was there that day. I had to make a special application for him to be present in court for his appeal. Jerome Kennedy cites nearly 20 grounds for appeal, including the admissibility of certain witnesses and evidence, lack of warnings to the jury regarding witnesses with questionable credibility. Judicial and crown conduct within the context of Glenn having to represent himself. And he also cites two areas of fresh evidence regarding other suspects.

The initial suspects found by the Halifax police because Glenn was unable to introduce them into trial. And a brand new suspect that police never investigated, serial killer Michael McGray. With Glenn in the courtroom Kennedy presents his case. But before he finishes talking, he starts to get a sinking feeling. It was disappointing, to say the least. So when I left there that day, I've done a lot of these appeals. And when I left there that day, I knew, man, we're done. They don't get it. We're done.

I don't specifically remember telling him after, Glenn, don't get your hopes up. But by this point, Glenn didn't have his hopes up. He knew the system was against him. He was one small man in a giant wheel, caught. So the system of criminal justice in Canada was a system of injustice in the case of Glenisoo. Three months later, a decision comes down.

It's 412 pages long and full of legalese. But every issue argued by Kennedy is met with the same response. No merit, or grounds dismissed. Remember, there was no physical evidence connecting Glenn to the murder. It was all hearsay and witness testimony. Each witness was highly problematic, yet the Court of Appeal found no issue with the admissibility of any of their evidence. The court also said it wasn't an issue that strong warnings, called Vetrovac

warnings, weren't given to the jury regarding the witness's credibility. The Crown even admitted that Wayne Wise, career criminal and Glenn's nephew, was not credible. But they said he was so obviously not credible that a warning wasn't needed. They said no clear or sharp warning about his evidence was needed against jailhouse informant David Carvery, who received a reduced sentence for his testimony. As for the other suspects, the court ruled that there may be disposition and proximity in the neighborhood, but there is no connection to the circumstances of Ms. Way's murder. And on serial killer Michael McRae specifically, the decision includes a memo by a member of the Halifax Regional Police which reads, based on my information, Mr. McRae's method of killing

Based on my information, Mr. McGray's method of killing involved knives, stabbing, cutting, one case of cutting victim's throat, strangulation, and blunt force trauma. He described how McGray kills, which is similar to how Brenda was killed. But police asked McRae if he had ever killed a prostitute and he said no. So far as I understand it, the police and the court accepted the word of a serial killer. There is absolutely nothing the Court of Appeal found

that would suggest Glenn Assoon should get a new trial. This is the worst appellate court decision that I've ever seen. This man did not have a fair trial. There's almost a presumption that an individual who represents himself is not going to have a fair trial because he doesn't know what he's doing. And they were losing patience with Glenn. Man, there were strong grounds of appeal. And then we offer up on the platter. By the way, there's about five or six suspects, good suspects. You choose which one you want, but we'll also, we've got a serial killer here who we're going to put before

you. And that court of appeal failed miserably. The only avenue left for Kennedy now is to appeal he writes the application. And I remember that I was savage is the only word I can use to describe the way I wrote that. I wrote that in a way probably should have been a complaint to the law society because I was so disrespectful of the judges. But I had an innocent man in jail and three judges who didn't listen to what was going on or didn't understand what was going on. So I didn't care by that point. The application for leave to appeal is dismissed on September 14, 2006. Kennedy is moving on to a new career in politics.

Before he does, he puts together a comprehensive file and sends it to the Innocence Canada office in Toronto. It's Glenn's last hope for justice. But Glenn's needs are even more immediate. He has to survive Dorchester Penitentiary. Coming up on Dead Wrong. He said, no, I'm leaving that prison one of two ways, dead or as an innocent man. Our father suffered on the inside, and we suffered on the outside.

I said, I want a new mattress, and I want a new trial. I said, I'm not coming down until I get them. But I was kind of wigging out a bit, to tell you the truth. It was two or three days before they got him to a doctor. They didn't want the bruises to show. Dead Wrong is written and produced by Janice Evans, Nancy Hunter, and me, Tim Busque. Sound design by Evan Kelly. Shamham Booyan provided transcripts.

Our digital producer is Emily Connell. Chris Oak is our story editor. The senior producer of CBC Podcasts is Tanya Springer. And our executive producer is Arif Noorani. For discussion, posts, pictures from the case, and more, find us on Facebook and Twitter at UncoverCBC. We're also on Instagram at CBC Podcasts. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.