Federal justice minister says B.C. man's murder conviction was likely miscarriage of justice

Gerald Bernard Klassen spent more than a quarter century in jail for the first-degree murder of 22-year-old Julie McLeod in 1993 — a crime he has always maintained he did not commit. 

This week, Federal Justice Minister David Lametti concluded the B.C. man's 1995 conviction was likely a miscarriage of justice, ordering a new trial after a years-long effort by the University of B.C.'s Innocence Project.

Project director Tamara Levy says she and the two lawyers who handled the case reached Klassen by phone to tell him the news.

"He was very pleased as you can imagine," Levy told the CBC.

"But it's been a long time in coming and — of course — better late than never, but he spent 26 years in prison for a crime that never happened. So he, of course, wishes this result had been achieved at the outset."

The result is the second major victory for the Innocence Project.

In 2020, Lametti ordered a new trial for another of the program's subjects — a father who was convicted of killing his two sons in 1983.

The accused in that case — Tomas Yebes — was acquitted after a brief retrial at which the Crown presented no evidence.

A spokesperson for the B.C. Prosecution Service said Klassen's case is being reviewed in order to determine the next steps. But Levy said she expects the case will likely follow a similar path.

According to court documents, McLeod's partially clad body was found in December 1993 at the base of a boat launch ramp on the south shore of Nicola Lake, near Merritt, B.C.

Klassen said he had sex with Mcleod and admitted that the pair had an argument which ended with him pushing her away and Mcleod falling and striking her head on the boat ramp.

"He denies that there was anything other than consensual sexual contact and denies that Ms. McLeod was partially clothed when he left the scene," B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge said in 2020 when Klassen applied for bail pending the outcome of his appeal to Lametti.

"Mr. Klassen says that when he left the boat ramp, Ms. McLeod was alive and uttering abuse at him. He offered her a ride home, but she refused."

Despite Klassen's protestations, a jury found him guilty of causing her death through a sexual assault. The B.C. Court of Appeal rejected his bid to appeal and his case was turned down for a hearing by the Supreme Court of Canada.