Walter (Wally) Gillespie, left, and Robert (Bobby) Mailman pose in the south end neighbourhood where they grew up in Saint John, N.B., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

OTTAWA - Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani announced Friday that he has ordered a new trial for two New Brunswick men convicted of a murder nearly 40 years ago.

Virani said in a news release that after a review he has determined there's a reasonable basis to conclude a miscarriage of justice occurred in the convictions of Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie in 1984.

The two men were convicted of second-degree murder in the Nov. 30, 1983 slaying of George Gilman Leeman in Saint John, N.B., and an appeal of their convictions was dismissed by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in 1988.

They were sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 18 years.

Virani said his decision is the result of new information that was not submitted to the courts at the time of the men's initial trials and appeals and that calls into question "the overall fairness of the process."

Mailman and Gillespie issued a joint statement saying they are "happy that justice is being done for us."

"Neither of us had anything to do with Mr. Leeman’s murder," they said. "We have always been innocent, and we thank the minister for what he has done."

Innocence Canada — an organization that works with the wrongfully convicted — also praised the decision, saying the justice minister had realized "the urgency of the case." The organization said it is hopeful that Mailman — who is terminally ill — will be able to provide testimony in the case "in the near future."

According to a summary of facts from the Court of Appeal decision, the first criminal trial ended with a hung jury and the second trial in a conviction.

Innocence Canada says Leeman’s badly beaten and partially burned body was found by a jogger in a wooded area in the Saint John neighbourhood of Rockwood Park. It says Gillespie and Mailman "both had strong alibis with multiple witnesses placing them far from the crime scene on the day of the murder."

Gillespie served 21 years of his life sentence in prison and is now 81 years old and living in a halfway house in Saint John, Innocence Canada says.

"Mailman who served 18 years in prison, sadly, is terminally ill. He is 76 years of age. He also lives in Saint John," the group says.

Ron Dalton, co-president of Innocence Canada, said he got to know the two men while he was serving time in prison.

“I spent nine years in prison for a murder that I did not commit, and much of that time I spent with Bobby Mailman and Wally Gillespie in a maximum security penitentiary," he said in a statement. "They never gave up hope that one day justice would be done for them. Today is that day, and I congratulate them on their perseverance and courage."

Two eyewitnesses had testified for the Crown in the original trials, and Mailman and Gillespie’s 1988 appeal was based on an affidavit from one of them, 18-year-old Josh Arnold Loeman. In the affidavit, he recanted what he had originally told police about the killing.

Loeman said that his evidence at the trials was false and that police made him testify to what he said, after threatening to charge him with Leeman’s murder and send him to prison.

However, in a subsequent letter attached to a police affidavit submitted to the Appeal Court, Loeman said it was his recantation that was false, the result of threats from people associated with Mailman.

The Appeal Court concluded the fresh evidence from the defence was not credible and denied the appeal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2023.

— By Michael Tutton in Halifax with files from Keith Doucette

News from © The Canadian Press, 2023