The state, criminal justice politics and the Nova Scotia Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution

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dc.contributor.advisor McMullan, John L., 1948-
dc.coverage.spatial Nova Scotia
dc.creator Wall, Bob, M.A.
dc.date.accessioned 2011-05-09T12:32:44Z
dc.date.available 2011-05-09T12:32:44Z
dc.date.issued 1990
dc.identifier.other KEN7970 W34 1990
dc.identifier.uri http://library2.smu.ca/xmlui/handle/01/22784
dc.description v, 219 leaves ; 29 cm.
dc.description Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-213).
dc.description Online version unavailable; Print version available from Patrick Power Library.
dc.description.abstract Donald Marshall, Jr., a sixteen-year old Micmac Indian, was wrongfully convicted of the murder of a Black youth named Sandy Seale in Sydney, Nova Scotia in 1971. Eleven years later, Marshall was exonerated, but at the same time, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeals blamed him for causing the miscarriage of justice. In 1986, the government of Nova Scotia, in response to public, media and political pressure, established a Royal Commission to find out why the justice system failed in the Marshall Case. The thesis argues that Marshall's arrest, conviction and imprisonment were the result of incompetence and racial prejudice compounded by a cultural blindness of criminal justice professionals which placed Marshall in a state of dependence from which he was powerless to escape for eleven years. When Marshall eventually won his freedom, the response of the criminal justice system was to blame the victim of the miscarriage in an attempt to restore an aura of legitimacy to the system. Finally, the thesis argues that the work of the Royal Commission, by exposing the complex interaction of various levels of the criminal justice system and the concomitant political and social conflicts at work in the case, supports the theory that the criminal justice system operates with a degree of relative autonomy within the context of the Canadian State.
dc.description.provenance Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-09T12:32:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 en
dc.language.iso en
dc.publisher Halifax, N.S. : Saint Mary's University
dc.subject.lcc KEN7970
dc.subject.lcsh Marshall, Donald
dc.subject.lcsh Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution
dc.subject.lcsh Judicial error -- Nova Scotia
dc.subject.lcsh Governmental investigations -- Nova Scotia
dc.subject.lcsh Criminal justice, Administration of -- Nova Scotia
dc.title The state, criminal justice politics and the Nova Scotia Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution
dc.type Text
thesis.degree.name Master of Arts in Atlantic Canada Studies
thesis.degree.level Masters
thesis.degree.discipline Atlantic Canada Studies Program
thesis.degree.grantor Saint Mary's University (Halifax, N.S.)
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