Milgaard's lawyers get serious
Earlier this week, Milgaard's lawyer, James Lockyer, interviewed Nichol John. He pointed out inconsistencies in her testimony. Lockyer emphasized the fact that after signing the statement that said that she saw David kill Gail Miller, which was written while Nichol was held against her will in police custody, Nicole never publicly repeated that assertion again.
For 11 weeks after the murder, Nichol maintained the same story that David and Ron repeated: their car had gotten stuck in an alleyway, and they were delayed on their visit to see Albert "Shorty" Cadrain. Neither Nichol nor Ron mentioned anything peculiar about David's behavior on that day until Nichol was taken into police custody almost three months later.
Hersh Wolch, another one of David's lawyers, claimed that the police concluded that Milgaard was the killer early on. Consequently, they tried to obtain statements from Milgaard's teenage friends to corroborate their theory. Both he and Lockyer stated that the police exerted pressure on Nichol John and Ron Wilson to implicate David in the crime.
David's second traveling companion, Ron Wilson, took the stand on Wednesday. Wilson was much more forthcoming and direct in his statements to the Inquiry than Nichol. He said that he just wanted the police to stop interrogating him, so he told them what he thought they wanted to hear back in 1969. Like Nichol, he had been held in police custody for one night -- she was held for two -- and he had been using LSD in the days prior to the interrogation. Thus, he was not feeling very well during the police interviews and was eager to leave the police station.
Wilson recanted his original testimony back in 1990. His retraction enabled Joyce Milgaard to obtain a new hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada in 1992.
Sigrid Macdonald. Copyright 2005. All rights reserved
For 11 weeks after the murder, Nichol maintained the same story that David and Ron repeated: their car had gotten stuck in an alleyway, and they were delayed on their visit to see Albert "Shorty" Cadrain. Neither Nichol nor Ron mentioned anything peculiar about David's behavior on that day until Nichol was taken into police custody almost three months later.
Hersh Wolch, another one of David's lawyers, claimed that the police concluded that Milgaard was the killer early on. Consequently, they tried to obtain statements from Milgaard's teenage friends to corroborate their theory. Both he and Lockyer stated that the police exerted pressure on Nichol John and Ron Wilson to implicate David in the crime.
David's second traveling companion, Ron Wilson, took the stand on Wednesday. Wilson was much more forthcoming and direct in his statements to the Inquiry than Nichol. He said that he just wanted the police to stop interrogating him, so he told them what he thought they wanted to hear back in 1969. Like Nichol, he had been held in police custody for one night -- she was held for two -- and he had been using LSD in the days prior to the interrogation. Thus, he was not feeling very well during the police interviews and was eager to leave the police station.
Wilson recanted his original testimony back in 1990. His retraction enabled Joyce Milgaard to obtain a new hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada in 1992.
Sigrid Macdonald. Copyright 2005. All rights reserved
posted by Sigrid Macdonald @ 8:04 PM
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