Donald Marshall, Jr.

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"Donald Marshall" redirects here. For the grand chief of the Mi'kmaq Nation, see Donald Marshall Sr.

Donald Marshall, Jr. is a Mi'kmaq man who was wrongly convicted of murder. The case inspired a number of disturbing questions about the fairness of the Canadian justice system, especially given that Marshall was an Aboriginal; as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation put it, "The name Donald Marshall is almost synonymous with 'wrongful conviction' and the fight for native justice in Canada."^[1] The case inspired the book and film, Justice Denied. His father, Donald Marshall Sr., was grand chief of the Mi'kmaq Nation at the time.

Marshall was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering acquaintance Sandy Seale in 1971. Marshall (age 16) and Seale (age 17) had been walking around Sydney, Nova Scotia's Wentworth Park during the late evening. They confronted and attempted to rob Roy Ebsary, an older man they encountered in the park. A short scuffle occurred and Seale fell mortally wounded by a knife blow which Esbary delivered. Ebsary admitted that he had stabbed Seale but then lied about his role to the police who immediately focused on Marshall, who was 'known to them' from previous incidents. Police speculated that Marshall, in a rage for some reason, had murdered Seale. From the beginning, the system seemed determined to prove that Marshall was guilty.^[2]

Marshall spent 11 years in jail before being acquitted by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 1983. A witness came forward to say he had seen another man stab Seale, and several prior witness statements pinpointing Marshall were recanted. In this appeal which acquitted him of the previous murder charge, Marshall admitted that he lied in his first trial about his and Seale's activities on the night of Seale's death. He and Seale had actually approached Ebsary with the intention of robbing him and they were in the park that night looking for "drunks to roll". Ebsary was subsequently tried and convicted of manslaughter.^[2] When Marshall's conviction was overturned, the presiding judge placed some blame on Marshall for the miscarriage of justice, calling him "the author of his own misfortune."^[3]

In response, a Royal Commission was formed to investigate what had caused the miscarriage of justice. This would lead to an influential case on judicial independence in Canada, Mackeigan v. Hickman.

Subsequently, Marshall, reached prominence again as the primary petitioner in the landmark Supreme Court of Canada case of R. v. Marshall [1999] 3 SCR 45 regarding native fishing rights.

On January 2, 2006, Marshall was arrested on a new charge of attempted murder stemming from an alleged attempt to strike another man with his motor vehicle. The judge in the case has ordered Marshall to undergo a psychiatric assessment to determine his fitness to stand trial.