Quote from Vancouver Sun- Chief among the
witnesses against Murrin was one Dougie Martin. Martin testified that Murrin
confessed to him after he was placed in the next cell in the segregation unit at
Mission Institution. Martin's record, as a witness and a criminal convicted of
more than 100 offences, was revealed on the stand, though, and the fact that the
police and the Crown felt they needed to rely on him undermined their already
tenuous case.
Quote
from Vancouver Sun
on Sophonow's informants. -A third, Douglas Martin, has testified in
so many criminal cases -- three before Sophonow's and five since -- that he is
known as "father confessor."
"As
a group," Cory said of the three in his report, "they have an
unsurpassed record for deception and lying." He said jailhouse informants
are capable of deceiving even skeptical, experienced observers, that juries are
especially vulnerable and that their evidence should be excluded in all but the
rarest of circumstances.
Murrin is attempting to portray himself as one of
the wrongly accused aligning himself with Sophonow and utilizing the same
attorney as Sophonow. Murrin has convinced Sophonow of his innocence due to the
similarities in the way they were both investigated and prosecuted.
Quote from Vancouver Sun- Sophonow, who
has become friends with Murrin, is firmly in the last camp. He says the police
and prosecutors made the same kinds of mistakes in Murrin's case that they made
in his own. And although Murrin was never found guilty, Sophonow encourages him
in his continuing fight for true exoneration. "You always have to be in
their face."
Murrin the informant/ agent, has fooled Sophonow
much in the same way as RCMP informant Doug Martin had fooled Sophonow’s jury.
Martin and Murrin knew each other and have spent time together in a cell. Both
are informants working for the RCMP.
Martin later claimed that he was being fed information and that he was
paid to testify by the RCMP.
quote:
Life-long criminal Daniel Martin claimed cellmate Shannon Murrin confessed to
the 1996 killing of Mindy Tran. But Murrin was acquitted and Martin's testimony
raised more questions than it answered. CBC Radio's Yvette Brend tried to answer
some of those questions by tracking down Martin. The career criminal, whose past
convictions include perjury, claimed jail mates confessed to him in several
murder trials, earning him the nickname "Father Confession." Brend
also revealed that Martin was now alleging the RCMP fed him evidence in the
Murrin case and gave him cash to testify. After the stories aired on CBC Radio,
the RCMP seized Brend's tapes and began investigating Martin's claims.
see- news
release
Quote from Vancouver Sun- Murrin’s own
lawyer Wilson goes out of his way, though, to
acknowledge that the behaviour of the RCMP in the Murrin case was unusual, and
that they are usually scrupulous in their efforts to get "pristine and
objective views and recollections of witnesses."