New advocacy group calls Kamloops man’s murder conviction ‘miscarriage of justice’

A new advocacy group is calling on the provincial government to follow the federal government direction and re-try a Kamloops man jailed for murder on “flawed investigations and unreliable forensic evidence.”

Gerald Klassen was convicted 30 years ago of killing 22-year-old Julie McLeod near Merritt. In 2022, his conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered.

Despite then federal Justice Minister David Lametti’s direction, BC prosecutors opted to stay Klassen’s charges and his name was never cleared.

“A stay of proceedings in these circumstances is an abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” said Myles Frederick McLellan, executive director of Miscarriage of Justice Canada.

The advocacy organization urged the province to comply with Lametti’s order and proceed to trial, negotiate compensation with Klassen in “good-faith discussions” and commit to transparency in the federal government’s miscarriage of justice review process.

Klassen spent 26 years behind bars for first-degree murder. In 1997, the BC Court of Appeal dismissed his case and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear it. In 2020, he was released on bail pending a ministerial review.

That review ended with the federal justice minister finding it likely there was a miscarriage of justice in Klassen’s conviction.

McLeod was found partially submerged in Nicola Lake, but the evidence supporting her death as murder was controversial and was challenged even during Klassen’s trial.

Before it could proceed to another trial, his charge was stayed by BC prosecutors, meaning he has not been acquitted of the crime in court.

Since then, Klassen has filed a civil lawsuit against the BC government over what he argues was a wrongful conviction leading to more than two decades behind bars.