Ontario Government Responds to Goudge Report on Rogue Pathologist

This is a follow-up to yesterday's Library Boy post entitled Goudge Commission Report On Rogue Pathologist Who Sent Innocents To Jail.

In response to the Goudge Commission report into the activities of pathologist Charles Smith, whose botched reports and unsubstantiated testimony in court contributed to many wrongful convictions, the Ontario government has promised to introduce new legislation that would "strengthen the death investigation system, provide for greater oversight and accountability and improve coroner and pathology services in Ontario."

More fallout from the Goudge report:

• Deeply flawed coroner's office condemned (Globe and Mail, Oct. 2, 2008): "A massive review of every case involving pathologist Charles Smith will take place in the wake of an inquiry report yesterday that exposed a 12-year litany of errors in the Ontario Chief Coroner's Office. Ontario also promised to compensate Dr. Smith's victims and ordered a probe of more than 200 so-called shaken-baby deaths dating back to 1981 out of concern that individuals may have been wrongly prosecuted or convicted."
• Wrongfully convicted man sues former Ont. pathologist (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Oct. 2, 2008): "An Ontario man who spent 12 years in jail after being wrongfully convicted of killing his four-year-old niece has launched a $13-million lawsuit against the disgraced former chief pathologist whose testimony helped convict him."