Justice advocate David Milgaard remembered as champion for those who 'don't have a voice'
CTV
Justice advocate David Milgaard, a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent more than two decades in prison, has died.
Justice advocate David Milgaard, a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent more than two decades in prison, has died.
On Sunday, a family member confirmed with CTV News that Milgaard had passed away, but declined to comment further. Milgaard was 69 years old.
Milgaard, who was born in Winnipeg, had been living in Calgary with his son and daughter.
Milgaard had become a justice advocate after he was wrongfully convicted in 1970 for the rape and murder of Gail Miller in Saskatoon. Milgaard and two friends had been on a road trip, driving through the city when the murder happened. A year later, at the age of 17, Milgaard was convicted of Miller's murder and handed a life sentence.
He spent 23 years in prison before his release in 1992 following a review of his case by the Supreme Court of Canada, and exoneration by DNA evidence in 1997.
"It was the most terrible, terrible moments in my life when the justice department just messed things up so terribly for me," Milgaard told CTV News while in Winnipeg in 2020 speaking on a panel at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights about wrongful convictions.
“Getting out of prison for a person that's been in there a while is not an easy thing to do.”
