Romeo's wrongful conviction case highlights the shortcomings of the justice system that devastates innocent people's lives. Romeo was sentenced to life at the age of 43 for the murder of Leopold Roy based on wrongful identification by the victim's wife, Mildred. He became the primary suspect due to familiar resemblance as described by Mildred in Ottawa police station on August 9, 1967(CBS News, 2010). Following Romeo's arrest on an unrelated charge, Mildred observed him and identified Romeo as the assailant. When he was rearrested again for armed robbery, Romeo confessed to the murder.
The conviction was based on human factors, which ignored errors among justice system participants. The police relied on Mildred's witness statement, although she had identified three other men as suspects (Innocence Canada, 2020). Also, Romeo's antisocial personality disorder was ignored despite confirmation from psychological experts. When Romeo recanted his confession, it was not considered, even when essential evidence such as hair, blood and fingernail samples had been lost. On November 7, 1972, Romeo was found guilty and sentenced to life (Canadian press, 2013).
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Romeo's exoneration was based on the critical errors that investigators overlooked. After two failed appeals and a letter to the ministry of justice, the Minister of Justice only considered the case after a new report by detective McCombie came to light to justify Romeo's alibi. The court of appeal reopened Romeo's case in August 2006 (Canadian Press, 2013). The charges were withdrawn on April 29, 2010, and his criminal record cleared at 71.
Conclusively, Romeo's case outlines the potential causes of wrongful convictions. Human factors such as eyewitness misidentification, mental state, a procedural and judicial error can determine justice. When such elements are ignored, suspects spend years in prison and justice is delayed for the victims. Ascertaining justice requires factuality in prosecutions and investigations.
References
CBC News. (2010) Romeo Phillion timeline. CBC Canada . https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/romeo-phillion-timeline-1.727759
Innocence Canada. (2020). Romeo Phillion. Innocence Canada . https://www.innocencecanada.com/exonerations/romeo-phillion/
The Canadian Press. (2013). Romeo Phillion loses bid to sue for quashed conviction. CBC News . https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/romeo-phillion-loses-bid-to-sue-for-quashed-conviction-1.1370125
