Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Bank Robbery |
Sentence: |
5 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
1.67 |
Year Crime: |
1986 |
Year Convicted: |
1987 |
Year Cleared: |
1990 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Canada |
County or Region of Crime: |
Ontario |
City of Crime: |
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Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Michael McTaggert was arrested in February 1986 and charged with seven bank robberies. He was jailed for 10 months awaiting trial. Michael McTaggert was convicted in 1987 of two of the robberies and acquitted of five. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment. After several weeks he was released on bail pending the outcome of his appeal. While still awaiting his appeal decision, in 1989 several robberies are committed and McTaggert is arrested. He is jailed for 8-1/2 months while awaiting trial. He is acquitted of the robberies based on evidence that robberies with the same MO and perpetrators of the same description were committed while he was jailed. In June 1990 Ontario's Court of Appeal quashed McTaggert's two 1987 convictions. He had spent a total of about 20 months jailed or imprisoned. In 1991 he filed a 4.25 million (CAN $) lawsuit for malicious prosecution. During the civil trial in 2000 evidence was disclosed that two bank employees originally identified another man as the robber. That information was in a set of police notes that were not disclosed to McTaggert's trial lawyers. In December 2000 the judge issued his ruling that the police had concealed information from both the prosecutors and McTaggart and thus he did not receive a fair trial. On July 3, 2001 McTaggert signed a settlement of his lawsuit for CAN$380,000. That amount was for compensation of $230,000 plus interests and costs." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Erroneous eyewitness identifications by bank employees. |
Innocence Proved By: |
In June 1990 Ontario's Court of Appeal quashed McTaggert's two 1987 convictions. |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
"CAN$380,000" |
Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
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Age When Released: |
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Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
AIDWYC website - Wrongful convictions webpage |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.aidwyc.org/ |
Information Source 2: |
Michael McTaggert's Life |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/witness/elvis/timeline.htm |
Information Source 3: |
"Compensation received by persons wrongly convicted in Canada, AIDWYC Journal, Spring 2009, p. 12" |
Information Location 3: |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org