Quebec man’s acquittal in 1978 double murder ‘historic and exceptional,’ lawyer says

One of the lawyers for a Quebec man who was acquitted Wednesday of a decades-old double murder hopes her client’s case will convince other wrongfully convicted people not to lose hope.

For the first time in more than 40 years, Claude Paquin woke up as a completely free man after Quebec’s Crown prosecutor’s office declined to try him for a second time for the 1978 murders of Ronald Bourgouin and Sylvie Revah.

Lawyer Julie Harinen describes the result as “historic and exceptional” because so few murder convictions are overturned in Quebec.

Paquin was first convicted of the murders in 1983, his appeal was unsuccessful, and he served 18 years in detention before being granted parole.

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Project Innocence Quebec took up his case, and this year federal Justice Minister Arif Virani ordered a new trial after concluding there were reasonable grounds to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.

Harinen says the prosecutor’s decision to drop the case was based on new evidence that emerged, including that the informant who served as the main witness against Paquin changed his story and received money and favours in return for testimony.