A lawyer for Glen Assoun, the Nova Scotia man who served 16 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend, confirmed today that his longtime client has died. Assoun stands outside Supreme Court in Halifax on Friday, July 12, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
HALIFAX – A lawyer for Glen Assoun, the Nova Scotia man who served 16 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend, confirmed today that his longtime client has died.
Sean MacDonald says Assoun, 67, died suddenly Wednesday night while he was at a restaurant in Dartmouth, N.S.
Assoun was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in September 1999 for the stabbing death of Brenda Lee Anne Way in Dartmouth – a crime that has yet to be solved.
One of Assoun’s lawyers began reviewing the case, and he persuaded the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted to take it on in 2010.
In 2014, the federal Justice Department said a preliminary assessment determined there could have been a miscarriage of justice, and an in-depth investigation was ordered before Assoun was released from prison with conditions in November 2014.
In March 2019, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court dismissed Assoun’s conviction, and he later agreed to an undisclosed compensation deal with the Nova Scotia and federal governments in March 2021.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2023.
