Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani takes part in an interview in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. Virani has ordered a new trial for two New Brunswick men convicted of a 1984 murder.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA – The federal justice minister has ordered a new trial for two New Brunswick men convicted of a 1984 murder.
Arif Virani says in a news release today that after a review, he has determined there’s a reasonable basis to conclude a miscarriage of justice occurred in the convictions of Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie.
The two men were convicted of second-degree murder in the slaying of George Gilman Leaman in Saint John, N.B., and an appeal of their convictions was dismissed by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in 1988.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 18 years.
Virani says his decision is the result of new information that was not submitted to the courts at the time of the men’s initial trials and appeals and that calls into question “the overall fairness of the process.”
Mailman and Gillespie submitted their application for criminal conviction review in December 2019, and both are now on parole and out of custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2023.
