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N.S. minister holds off comment on wrongful conviction case due to past as Mountie

Mark Furey, a former Mountie, says he wrote a letter today asking for guidance from the province's conflict of interest commissioner on whether he can respond to 63-year-old Glen Assoun's case. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan. Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press

Nova Scotia’s justice minister says he’s waiting for a ruling on whether he has a conflict of interest before commenting on revelations the RCMP erased evidence in the case of a man wrongfully convicted of murder.

Mark Furey, a former Mountie, says he wrote a letter today asking for guidance from the province’s conflict of interest commissioner on whether he can respond to 63-year-old Glen Assoun’s case.

READ MORE: Timeline: The wrongful murder conviction of Halifax’s Glen Assoun

He says there’s been suggestions his old job might compromise his abilities to make impartial decisions on the matter.

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On March 1, Assoun was declared innocent of murder in the 1995 killing of Brenda Way after he’d served 17 years in federal penitentiaries and lived under restrictive bail conditions for four years.

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READ MORE: Evidence of possible serial killer in Halifax wrongful conviction case was destroyed: report

A federal Justice Department report made public Friday revealed the RCMP chose not to disclose an investigator’s theories of other suspects – including multiple murderer Michael McGray – in the
murder.

The department’s preliminary assessment, which led to Assoun’s release in 2014, said the evidence was erased or thrown away in the lead-up to Assoun’s unsuccessful appeal in 2006.

 

Watch: RCMP deleted documents in wrongful murder conviction case

Click to play video: 'RCMP deleted documents in wrongful murder conviction case'
RCMP deleted documents in wrongful murder conviction case

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