Why lawyers say alleged police wrongdoing in the Glen Assoun case can’t be forgotten
HALIFAX — For Sean MacDonald, the push to restart a criminal investigation into police destruction of evidence in the Glen Assoun wrongful conviction case matters both for personal reasons and for the precedent it could set.
The defence lawyer, who teamed with Phil Campbell in the long battle to prove Assoun’s innocence, said the ordeal took a huge health toll on the Nova Scotia man, whom he first met in 2006 as he languished in prison for the 1995 murder of Brenda Way.
“Glen suffered and continued to suffer up until the day that he died,” MacDonald said in an interview Wednesday, referring to Assoun’s death last June at the age of 67.
Assoun spent almost 17 years in jail and five years under strict bail conditions before being acquitted of the killing in 2019. Four months after his acquittal, the province’s Supreme Court released the federal investigation of the case, which revealed that an RCMP constable’s evidence — both electronic and paper files — pointing toward alternative suspects had been deleted or was missing.