Criminal Law: Wrongful Conviction of Donald Marshall

Running head: CRIMINAL LAW
CRIMINAL LAW
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1CRIMINAL LAW
Answer 1:
Donald Marshall was an Aboriginal activist who was wrongly convicted of murder. His
case was one of the most controversial cases in the criminal justice system’s history of Canada
(McMillan, 2018). He was the victim of the wrongful conviction of murder. He has to stay
convicted for 11 years in jail for the failure of the justice system.
During the trial of the case, he was inside jail and he pleaded his innocence. But still it
was overlooked and he was sentenced to jail for the act not committed by him. Historically
though Canada is being found to the protector of human rights all over the world but in actual, it
is not the case. Canada not only failed to honor the Aboriginal rights of the Aboriginal nations
but also failed to acknowledge the aboriginal people’s human rights.
During the investigation procedure, it was found that the Police Department of Sydney
very negligible or no experience to conduct a investigation of homicide case. They did not accept
the offer of assistance made by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It is known to all that in any
investigation the police played a very vital role in collecting evidences to meet the results of the
case. But in this case, they do not co operate each other. No autopsy was done on the body of the
victim, Sandy Seale. By the process of autopsy, the actual cause of death and its probable timing
can be found it but it was done in this case. Moreover, the crime scene was neither secured nor
photographed; hence there were enough possibilities of manhandling or even destroying the valid
evidences. A search of the location of murder provided very little evidence; murder weapon was
not recovered (Palmater, 2016).

2CRIMINAL LAW
Marshall even agreed to assist the police but his statements were recorded almost two
days after the incident. Marshall informed the police about the incident that how he and Seale
had met two unknown men who asked them whether they have cigarettes. Though Marshall gave
the description of those men such that police can identify them but police did not make any
search of them. Police did not look for the murder weapon in house of Marshall. Under
suspicious and questionable situations, police made interrogations to two teenagers who were
present near the murder location on the night when the murder incident happened. Based on this
irregular investigation, Police arrested him and charged him with the offence of murder.
Throughout his time in the prison, he claimed his innocence. But police did not take this into
account. Ten days after Marshall was convicted, a fellow Jimmy MacNeil informed Sydney
police that he had seen Ebsary stabbing Sandy Seale but this crucial evidence was overlooked by
the police considering the case being closed. This evidence given by Jimmy was not shared
neither with the Marshall’s lawyer nor with the crown prosecutor handling the case of Marshall’s
appeal to convict him. Later in 1982, after the Sydney police had requested the Royal
Commission of Mounted Police which again started a fresh investigation to the claim of Jimmy.
As a result of this new investigation, various new information popped up which were overlooked
before. Ebsary had admitted his act of stabbing Seale to his former roommate. In addition to this,
Donna, daughter of Ebsary also told her friend that she had seen her father cleaning a knife with
blood on the murder night. Moreover, Marshall also had sent copies of letter that he received
from Ebsasy where she claimed Marshall to be innocent to the Nova Scotia Parole board and
Sydney police.
The investigation made by RMCP disclosed many shortcomings not only in the handling
of the case by the Sydney police but also in the judicial proceedings. Witnesses being informed