Two New Brunswick men wrongfully convicted in a 1983 murder have reached a settlement with the province, according to the organization that helped exonerate them.
The co-president of Innocence Canada confirmed Thursday that a “satisfactory” conditional settlement had been reached for Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie.
“A standard clause in such agreements is strict confidentiality so I don’t have any details to share,” Ron Dalton said in an email to our newsroom.
Mailman and Gillespie were sentenced to life in prison without parole eligibility for at least 18 years after being convicted of second-degree murder in the death of George Leeman.
Leeman’s body was found by a jogger in a wooded area of Rockwood Park in Saint John on Nov. 30, 1983.
RELATED: Two N.B. men exonerated in 1983 Saint John murder
In December, Canada’s justice minister ordered a new trial after “new and significant information” called into question the overall fairness of the process.
Arif Virani said he determined there were reasonable grounds to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.
“It is most regretful it has taken 40 years for this day to come,” Tracey DeWare, chief justice of New Brunswick’s Court of King’s Bench, said after finding the men not guilty on Jan. 4.
Both men had their appeals to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal dismissed in 1998, and Gillespie was denied leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1994.
Gillespie served 21 years of his sentence before being granted parole while Mailman served 18 years. Gillespie is now 80 years old. Mailman, who is 76, is terminally ill.
“It is our hope the settlement will allow these men to live out the rest of their days in comfort,” said Dalton.
