Overzealous?
Joyce Milgaard was under fire this week when David's former defense lawyer, Tony Merchant, alleged that Joyce had been overly aggressive and may have intimidated witnesses at times. Merchant, who represented David in the 1980s, conceded that without Joyce's relentless perseverance, David may never have been released from prison.
It's hard to define which behaviors are assertive and appropriate and which are irritating or abrasive. Merchant was retained right after David escaped from the penitentiary in 1980 and was living a fugitive existence in Toronto. After several weeks of freedom, Dave was caught and shot in the back by the police. He still has a physical injury from that episode.
Moreover, breaking out of prison seriously decreased David's chances with the parole board -- another group of people who didn't sound too delighted with Joyce Milgaard at the inquiry this week because they were reported as saying that she seemed to have a different agenda for her son at the parole board meetings than he did.
Maybe Joyce was aggressive during certain parts of her struggle. I remember reading in When Justice Fails by Karp and Rosner that at one point Joyce offered to babysit for David Asper's newborn child, so that he could get back on the Milgaard case ASAP!
Sometimes, determination and persistence can grate on other people. But when the stakes are life-and-death or lifetime imprisonment, which was tantamount to a living death in Dave's case, those actions are understandable and justifiable. In fact, it's unfortunate that anyone at the inquiry feels entitled to attack Joyce in this manner. It's stressful enough for her to give up all of her time to follow the inquiry events month after month, and to travel back-and-forth to Saskatchewan to relive this nightmare.
One of the big issues that is looming over our heads right now is whether or not David will have to testify at the inquiry and how that may damage his mental health. (He is expecting his first child in January and all of his energy is being devoted to that upcoming event.) No one has mentioned Joyce's mental health or her age -- although she is a Christian Scientist who is born new everyday, she is no longer the young mother who had boundless energy to devote to her oldest son. I'm sure that she will be tremendously relieved when the ordeal of the inquiry is over.
Sigrid Mac
It's hard to define which behaviors are assertive and appropriate and which are irritating or abrasive. Merchant was retained right after David escaped from the penitentiary in 1980 and was living a fugitive existence in Toronto. After several weeks of freedom, Dave was caught and shot in the back by the police. He still has a physical injury from that episode.
Moreover, breaking out of prison seriously decreased David's chances with the parole board -- another group of people who didn't sound too delighted with Joyce Milgaard at the inquiry this week because they were reported as saying that she seemed to have a different agenda for her son at the parole board meetings than he did.
Maybe Joyce was aggressive during certain parts of her struggle. I remember reading in When Justice Fails by Karp and Rosner that at one point Joyce offered to babysit for David Asper's newborn child, so that he could get back on the Milgaard case ASAP!
Sometimes, determination and persistence can grate on other people. But when the stakes are life-and-death or lifetime imprisonment, which was tantamount to a living death in Dave's case, those actions are understandable and justifiable. In fact, it's unfortunate that anyone at the inquiry feels entitled to attack Joyce in this manner. It's stressful enough for her to give up all of her time to follow the inquiry events month after month, and to travel back-and-forth to Saskatchewan to relive this nightmare.
One of the big issues that is looming over our heads right now is whether or not David will have to testify at the inquiry and how that may damage his mental health. (He is expecting his first child in January and all of his energy is being devoted to that upcoming event.) No one has mentioned Joyce's mental health or her age -- although she is a Christian Scientist who is born new everyday, she is no longer the young mother who had boundless energy to devote to her oldest son. I'm sure that she will be tremendously relieved when the ordeal of the inquiry is over.
Sigrid Mac
posted by Sigrid Macdonald @ 11:12 AM
2 Comments:
At 12:14 PM,
Anonymous said…
Joyce Milgaard was not overly aggressive considering what her son had been through for the past dozen years when she met Merchant. I have two grown up sons and would have been just as determined and assertive to get a right wronged. I also helped Joyce from 1980-83 and found Joyce to be very focussed and energetic. I seem to recall she also babysat for my wife and I at times! We have waited a very long time for the truth to come out about this appalling case. Some people will try to attack the credibility and repuation of Joyce (and of myself in the case of Caldwell's legal rep.) but our reputations and credibility are not on the line here. We were one hundred per cent correct back in 1980-83 but everyone else had a closed mind and was in denial about the obvious miscarriage that had occured. Other reputations are now open to serious criticism. I am sure my conscience is totally clear and I know that of Joyce is. Any attacks on either of us therefore stem from a mental state of denial and guilt on the part of persons whose consciences may not be quite so clear.
yours: Peter Carlyle-Gordge
At 12:29 PM,
Sigrid Macdonald said…
Peter, I hope that you didn't think that I was implying that Joyce was unduly aggressive. What I was saying was that maybe her actions were aggressive, or perceived as such, but that word need not always take on a negative connotation.
Joyce's struggle has been with the legal system. My own personal struggle is with the medical system; I have been chronically sick for 24 years and have had numerous misdiagnoses, unnecessary suffering and a botched surgery. If you ask the doctors about me, they will definitely say that I am "aggressive," but in my opinion, I'm simply trying to attain what is rightfully mine -- decent health care.
That's all that Joyce did and that you did when you and your wife were working with her so closely. You only attempted to obtain what was just and fair.
My post about Joyce was meant to be a defense of her actions. I hope that it came across that way.
Nice talking to you again.
Sigrid
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