Ivan Henry exonerated but denied in civil suit for damages
Ivan Henry, a wrongfully convicted 67-year-old man from British Columbia, has been released from prison after serving a sentence of 27 years. Henry was arrested at the age of 35 on May 12, 1989 in Vancouver for sexual assault, though the arresting officers lacked a warrant for his arrest. Upon arrival at the police station, struggling for air due to the chokehold enforced by the officers, Henry was forced to speak and was “identified” by three of the 11 victims of his alleged assaults.
This alone was not enough to convict Henry, and he was released on surveillance. During this time under surveillance, Henry – according to the Vancouver police department – assaulted two more women. The first assault was alleged to have occurred the day after being released, and the second three weeks later. Upon identification of the past victims, Henry was rearrested and charged with 17 counts of sexual assault as a result of violating 15 women.
Though there was large doubt in the trial’s facts and evidence, Judge John Bouck reached a verdict in Henry’s case just hours after his trial began. Henry was found guilty of three counts of rape, two counts of attempted rape, and five counts of indecent assault.
27 years later, the British Columbia Court of Appeals exonerated Henry after the discovery that no properly instructed jury could reasonably have named Henry guilty, given that the defence had been denied access to important documents and the jury members were handled poorly.
In his newfound freedom, however, Henry is left to live on an old age pension that takes no account of the 27 years spent working in prison kitchens, laundries, sewing shops, and warehouses. Additionally, every cent that Henry earned while in prison – $5.25 per eight-hour shift –went to appealing his case, along with financial help from other inmates.
Penniless, Henry awaited a civil suit against the police, the crown, and government for damages and compensation. The drafted lawsuit included malicious prosecution, abuse of process, misfeasance in public office, and an award for charter damages for what Henry states in court documents were “egregious breaches” in the Crown’s disclosure obligations.”
However, the B.C Court of Appeals and Judge John Hall denied the lawsuit.
“As an intermediate appellate court, this court is clearly bound by pronouncements of the Supreme Court of Canada, and I consider those pronouncements currently foreclose negligence as a foundation for prosecutorial liability,” said Judge Hall. Had Henry been released on parole rather than acquitted, he would have been living in a halfway house, with both community and financial support, which directs much attention to the decision of the Court of Appeals.
Henry’s case is especially interesting in light of a recent University of Ottawa study, which determined that one per cent of convicted felons are innocent, meaning that in 2010 alone, 872 people were sentenced to prison for crimes they did not commit.