Loss and freedom intertwined for two New Brunswick men cleared of 1983 murder

Walter Gillespie poses for a photo in his apartment in Saint John, N.B. on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Hina Alam

SAINT JOHN, N.B. -

It has been one week since a judge in New Brunswick cleared Walter Gillespie of a murder charge that hung over him for half his 80 years. But as he looked around his dark, cramped apartment in Saint John, N.B., this week, Gillespie said he still feels caged by the legal battle that came to define his life.

"It just looks like another jail cell," Gillespie said with a chuckle, his eyes sweeping over brown cardboard boxes stacked in a corner and a few clothes hung on pegs by the entrance. "Just look at it. Everything's just crowded. You can't move in there."

Last Thursday, New Brunswick Court of King's Bench Chief Justice Tracey DeWare acquitted Gillespie and his friend Robert Mailman, 76, of the 1983 murder of George Gilman Leeman in Saint John. The pair served lengthy prison sentences after their 1984 convictions, but the federal justice minister last month overturned those convictions after new evidence came to light. DeWare declared their case a miscarriage of justice.

The Canadian Press interviewed Gillespie in his apartment Tuesday, while Mailman, who has terminal liver cancer, joined the exchange by phone.

Gillespie, who had been living in a halfway house as a condition of his parole, moved into the $800-a-month former hotel room the day after he was declared innocent, bringing his life's possessions in five cardboard boxes, two small duffel bags and a white plastic bag for his toiletries. He has taken up painting, and his works add a splash of colour to his new apartment. Mailman gave his friend a white tea kettle and a set of white, fluffy towels as a housewarming gift.

While Gillespie, known to friends as Wally, can find humour in his spartan living situation, his friend is angry.

"Wally shouldn't have to come out of the prison ... and to a halfway house all them years, only to go into a place that's even worse than he left behind. It's as simple as that," Mailman said.

For nearly four decades, Gillespie and Mailman single-mindedly worked toward one goal: proving their innocence. Gillespie served 21 years of his life sentence in prison, and Mailman served 18 years.

After they were released on parole, the two men would meet up every day at a Saint John coffee shop to go over their case.

"He's very passionate," Gillespie said of his friend. "... Before he got sick he used to dig open transcripts 24-7, all the time -- just never gave up on it."

Before Innocence Canada, an organization that fights for the wrongfully convicted, took up their case, Gillespie said he would use poker winnings to pay for documents -- the courts charge $1.75 a page for copies -- and other legal procedures.

While the two men are now free, they said they still feel marked by the 40 years spent under a cloud as convicted murderers. That period "is going to be in our system forever," Gillespie said.

Mailman, whose cancer has left him a shadow of his former self, said he wasn't there when his grandchildren were born or when they began school.

"I never met my great-grandchildren, and I refuse to see them now because of the shape I'm in," he said over the phone. "You've seen a picture of me. That's not something I want them to remember -- the picture of me."

Mailman's two sons died while he was in prison. "I can never get them back," he said in the interview. "I know they're probably looking down, seeing this and smiling, but I can't talk to them to say we finally won .... My biggest loss is my sons."

A submission to the court from Innocence Canada highlighted a series of failings in the prosecution of Gillespie and Mailman, including recanted testimony by key witnesses, evidence withheld from the defence, substandard forensic evidence and a disregard for the men's solid alibi.

Gillespie said he wanted to give federal Justice Minister Arif Virani "many, many thanks" for overturning their convictions, but both men want an apology from the Crown and the Saint John police. And time is running out.

"It's good, a relief that they found us innocent after 40 years," Mailman said. "But it was certainly overshadowed by the fact that now I'm going to die."

They both fear the police and the province will stall until they have died, so the case can be shelved with no compensation awarded. Provincial Justice Minister Ted Flemming has not commented since the court acquitted the men, and the police force has said it is awaiting a final report on the case from the federal Justice Department.

"Do you not think after 40 years of pain and suffering -- my boys are in the grave, I lost my wife, I lost my freedom -- after what they've done to me and Wally, do you not think we should be compensated?" Mailman asked.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2024.

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