John Chalmers
Imagine it was you who survived this crash…
- One day, you are a functioning member of the community.
- Then you have an accident which almost kills you.
- A year and a half later, after many surgeries, avoiding prescription painkillers for fear of becoming addicted, and barely managing your pain, the police take you in and hold you for two days to question you about events which happened almost two decades ago.
- The case was closed. Your solid alibi witness has died.
- They say you killed your wife. You deny this. You loved her and were devastated when she was killed. You blame yourself because you didn't stop her from riding that horse. . .
- You cooperate fully with the police. You trust officer Murray. You know that concussion may have affected your memory so you accept the cops' suggestions may be possible.
- They finally let you go and take what you have said to them and cobble it together into what they say is a "confession."
- It is not a confession but phrases taken out of context, skillfully edited videotape.
That is what happened to John Chalmers
John Chalmers was a very happy man the day of his wedding.
People don't realize how much John loved Janie and hated it when he had to hear negative things about her. He had heard the rumours that she was "playing around" and he stood up for her.
She was involved in the whole family and when she passed away, they all felt it, mainly John.
According to a family member, he sat at his own Mother and Father's table crying and kept repeating, " I tried to save her Mom, but when I turned her over, she was blue Mom, SHE WAS BLUE! I tried to help her, but I couldn't do anything."
Seventeen years after Janie's death, and after a full investigation had been done and the file was closed, after he had remarried and had a family, John Chalmers was involved in the accident shown above.
He was nowhere close to full recovery when one of the rookie officers on the original file decided to literally dig Jane Chalmers up and go after John Chalmers for murder. They spoke to local media asking for people to come forward.
The interrogation of John Chalmers broke every rule in the book of any properly trained policeman interested in serving the cause of justice. Unfortunately it conformed exactly to the kinds of methods which are used by police who seek to get a "confession" at any cost to pass on to a prosecutor who is willing to do anything it takes to get a conviction. Put all this together with an expert in junk science who is prepared to make claims which no honest scientist would ever make. Then put the case before a judge who would seem to have been asleep during important parts of the trial, waking up only to deny the defence the opportunity to put before the court evidence which would clearly show this was an over-zealous prosecution which was pursued for a purpose other than that of furthering the administration of justice.
In Saskatchewan, we have recently received a Queen's Bench decision which describes as malicious the taking to trial of any case which either the police or the Crown does not have reasonable and probable cause to pursue.
The only cause for the Chalmers prosecution was the police and crown together saw an opportunity to take advantage of a vulnerable man who was in circumstances ripe for the plucking.
This was a malicious prosecution.
Whether Janie Chalmers was killed by a horse or was, indeed murdered with a blunt object and then moved to the ditch where she was found, her husband, John, was not responsible.
There was nothing which happened during the seventeen years between the closing of the book on the case and its re-opening 17 years later which would make him into a suspect.
Except for the car accident.
And the fact that John Chalmers had fallen on very hard times.
He became a vulnerable man. And that is the only reason he is now in prison, separated from his wife and children, serving a life sentence without parole for fourteen years.
And the creativity and ingenuity of prosecutor Diane Foster who slipped through a win when she didn't really have a case.
