deadmonton - the trial of michael white - the vegreville observer article
Liana White, 29, was stabbed to death July 12th, 2005.
Michael White, 29, was found guilty of second-degree murder and offering an indignity to a dead body.
On December 13th, 2006 The Vegreville Observer, a weekly newspaper published in a town 90 kilometres east of Edmonton, reported that Michael White was the victim of poor police work and sloppy reporting by the media.
The article, written by Michael Simpson (opens as a Shockwave file) quotes White's civil lawyer Marilyn Burns who blames media companies for "creating interesting stories" that may have misled the public.
The article also refers to other police investigations that have accused, and in some cases helped convict, innocent persons.
The Observer granted the Last Link permission to present the article as it was originally published.
White Trial Victim of Poor Police Work, Sloppy Reporting
By Michael Simpson, Staff Writer
Vegreville, Alberta Observer
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Over the past year and a half, Michael White has been found guilty in the court of public opinion. Last week, White was also found guilty in Court of Queens Bench after a jury deliberated for about a day in his 2nd-degree murder trial.
Reporters picked up on a police theory that "White led searchers to the body". They were soon reporting it as if it were fact.
Following these media reports, many people felt White had to be the killer. Others watching the man's pleas on television also said he "looked guilty".
If White had been tried through internet voting, he would have been convicted in seconds.
According to Jon Nordby, a forensic expert from the United States, Edmonton Police skipped important parts in their investigation. Police theory is that Liana White's nude body had been laying face down near the top of a shallow ditch alongside a busy dirt road for about 5 and a half days.
Some people wondered if the body had really been there that long because Liana's body had hardly been ravaged by animals. If Liana had not been there for that length of time, who put her there?
The key suspect under constant police surveillance?
One way to determine how long the body had been there was through a soil test. The test was never done .. on order of Edmonton Police.
A pastor who said he visited the site the day after the body was found says the grass was not distrubed. Gerald Budzinski thought there would have been extensive ground damage if the body had been there nearly a week, as police claim. A dead human body would emit a chemical that would destroy vegetation. According to the pastor, the grass under Liana's body was green.
There were freshly cut brances covering Liana's body when police took photographs of the body. According to the search party when Liana was found, her body was in plain sight.
Photo's of footprints from the scene were compared by Nordby to photo's of Whites footwear in the garbage bag. At a glance from Nordby, the two did not appear to match.
Blood in the White bedroom was key evidence in the trial. The Prosecution claims the blood came from a stab wound to Liana's neck, the blow that likely killed her. The defense said there was vey little blood in the house. Nordby pointed out police did not remove floorboards in the White residence to search for more blood in the bedroom. "Where's the blood?" he asked, telling jurors that blood stains on the wall in the White home may not indicate a stabbing. "The stains on the wall came from a sor of impact of a blood source. Could be a fist, coul be a foot, coul be a knife-- but I would put that low on my list." Nordby explained that were Liana stabbed, he would have expected to find cast-off stains from the knife. There were none at the scene where Police and prosecutors claim she was killed.
Nordby testified that if Liana' s jugular and carotid artery had been severed by a sharp force, there would have been arterial spurting and projecting, which could have resulted in up to 2 liters of blood present. The bloody evidence used by prosecution against Michael White during the trial would not be equal to that amount according to Nordby.
Police used Luminol, a chemical used to detect blood, when they searched the bedroom and the back of Liana's SUV. Luinol, however, indicates more that a dozen items, including blook bleach or other household cleaners. The test failed to show there was blood in the back of the SUV. To positively identify blood, a follow up test known as a Castlemier's was done, the results of which were negative. A DNA test done in the back of the SUV proved negative also.
A key officer in the Michael White investigation was Ernie Schrieber, the detective who arrested the first of three teenage suspects in a deadly rock throwing prank that resulted in the death of 75 year old bus driver Robert Stanley in June 2002. Those charges were stayed because, turns out, the teenager's confession was false. Two more teens then pleaded guilty to manslaughter and have been sentenced. Not only was some of the police work sloppy, so was some of the reporting.
White's murder trial wasn't even a week old when an Edmonton Journal story headlined "Murdered Wife's SUV Sped Away", including a line that read "White was the last person to see Liana alive". The last person to see Liana White alive was of course the killer.
White's civil lawyer, Marilyn Burns, served the Sun and the Journal for claiming "White led searchers to the body". Evidence showed that White and his search team had been directed by EPS Seargeant Paul Wright to the exact location where Liana's body would be found.
"This is an example of sloppy reporting of a serious matter that is misleading and damaging. This kind of reporting does not serve the public. It only serves media companies because it creates more 'interesting' stories," said Burns.
Police investigators sometimes make mistakes. Ask David Milgaard, Guy Paul Moran, Wilson Neepoose, and Donald Marshal.
Or Maher Arar.
In Ontario last week, Guiliano Zaccardelli resigned as head of the RCMP, after admitting the Mounties had made "mistakes" in the Maher Arar case. Zaccardelli provided false testimony to a committee investigating Arar's case, claiming the RCMP had tried to contact U.S. officials to correct the record before Arar was deported. Zaccardelli later admitted that was false; Mounties had not tried to contact the U.S. before the deportation. These mistakes had resulted in Arar being deported by U.S. officials to Syria, where he was tortured for two years after being falsely linked to a-Qaeda.
In 1969, David Milgaard was passing through Saskatoon when he was convicted and charged with the murder and rape of nursing assistant Gail Miller. Milgaard spent nearly 23 years in prison until his conviction was overurned following new testimony, and proof beyond shadow of a doubt that Milgarrd had not comitted the crime for which he had been charged. An investigation was later launched to determine whether or not RCMP officers had abused justice in order to end the investigation. The Milgaard probe is still underway.
Lawyers for White complained the media sometimes failed to cover their cross examination.
"The printed and electronic media in Alberta - indeed all of Canada - has lost credibility because it does not have an ethics watchdog" said Burns. "The media relies on sensationalism to market its product and accuracy in reporting is often lost. Sometimes, results are disastrous."
In the case of Michael Whtie, the jury returned their verdict about a day of deliberation. Before they began deliberating, the judge told the to "consider all eidence and use good common sense".
Poor police work, biased media coverage, inconclusive DNA evidence, conflicting reports from witnesses, and the story of the only wintess who was inside the house that night, Michael White's daughter, being ruled inadmissible.
As the Zaccardelli resignation and the Milgaard inquiry would suggest, the case may be far from over.
White, who still maintains his innocence, says he plans to appeal. "One battle has been lost," he says," but the war is still going on."
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