The Quebec Court of Appeal has overturned a decision that allowed a former judge, who is now 88, to avoid a second trial in the death of his wife.
In 2012, Jacques Delisle, a retired judge with the Quebec Court of Appeal, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2009 death of his wife, 71-year-old Marie Nicole Rainville, and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
He spent nine years in prison before David Lametti, the federal justice minister at the time, ordered a retrial after finding that ‘a miscarriage of justice likely occurred’ in the case. One of the Crown’s experts made serious mistakes in the original pathology report that led to his conviction.
In April 2022, a Quebec Superior Court judge agreed with Delisle’s legal team that a second trial would be unfair, given the magnitude of those errors, and granted a stay in legal proceedings. CBC News online article 6th September 2023, ‘Court overturns stay granted to 88-year-old former Quebec judge in wife’s killing’
DELISLE, LAWRENCE [viz Miscarriages of Justice: DeLisle, Lawrence]: The Confession Tapes 2017 -
The Lawrence DeLisle story is really tragic and it’s also a mystery. The Confession Tapes s1e7: Down River, dude, 2017
On August 3rd you had an accident where your car left the roadway and went into the Detroit River. And they want to know if in fact it was an accident or if it was a purposeful act. ibid. rozzer’s cross-examination
I remember them talking about they’d found the children [4] and it ended up that they had passed away in the exact opposite order that they were born in. ibid. Lawrence
What level of proof do we need to believe that he intended to do this? ibid. defense dude
It is a murder case that was heartbreaking and horrifying. Twenty five years ago, in one of the most talked about tragedies in Detroit history, 28-year-old Lawrence J DeLisle of Lincoln Park drove his speeding Ford LTD station wagon down a dead end street in Wyandotte, catapulting the car into the deep, dark water of the Detroit River.
It was just after 9 p.m. on August 3,1989. DeLisle and his wife Suzanne were able to get out of the car through the open windows, and surface and survive. Their four children tragically drowned inside the car, 30 feet underwater: 8-year-old Bryan, 4-year-old Kathryn, 2-year-old Melissa and 8-month-old Emily.
DeLisle told police he had a leg cramp that forced his foot down on the gas pedal, and that the accelerator stuck, causing the vehicle to careen down Eureka Road into the river.
The car itself had a haunting history. DeLisle’s father had committed suicide in that vehicle less than two years before at Elizabeth Park in Trenton. There were still blood stains from the shooting inside the car.
Police didn’t buy DeLisle’s leg cramp/stuck accelerator story. Investigators questioned him, gave him a lengthy lie detector test, and claimed they had gotten an official confession from him. Several days after the drownings, DeLisle was charged with 4 counts of 1st degree murder in the deaths of his children, and one count of attempting to murder his wife.
The case caused a frenzy in the local community and attracted national and international attention. There were stories in Time magazine and The New York Times. People wondered, how could an ‘average Joe’, a typical dad, with a good job at a local tire store, and a nice home in Downriver Detroit do this to his own kids. People openly speculated that DeLisle’s wife was in on it.
Angry anonymous callers phoned the DeLisle home, threatening to blow up their Austin Street house.
When the case went to trial the following June, Wayne county Prosecutor Kevin Simowski argued that DeLisle was a troubled man, drowning in debt, feeling burdened by life and by his wife and kids. Simowski argued that DeLisle deliberately planned the crash and fully intended to die along with the rest of his family that August night.
Defense attorney Frank Eaman claimed the car was defective, and that DeLisle was NOT guilty. Eaman also told reporters that the only reason DeLisle ‘confessed’ to the crime was because police wore him down with an eight hour interrogation (with no attorney present) and basically brainwashed him and gave him a ‘kind of nervous breakdown’.
Eaman also argued that DeLisle could not possibly get a fair trial in Metro Detroit because of sensational media coverage by reporters ‘stalking’ the DeLisle family.
The trial judge Robert Colombo Jr. did suppress the confession, however Colombo rejected the idea of moving the case out of town.
The trial lasted 8 days in downtown Detroit with more than two dozen witnesses called to testify. The jury deliberated almost nine hours over two and a half days. The jury found DeLisle guilty on all counts.
DeLisle and his wife both wept when the verdicts were announced.
Numerous appeals were filed. Attorneys claimed the jury was poisoned by pretrial publicity about the ‘confession’ and that the case should have been moved. The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which refused to hear it.
Lawrence DeLisle is doing life in prison with no chance of parole in Coldwater, Michigan.
He still maintains his innocence, and says he still grieves over the death of his children. CBS news online article 1st August 2014, ‘The Story of Lawrence DeLisle and that deadly night his children drowned in the Detroit river’
DELTONDO, RACHAEL murder: True Crime Recaps 2022 -
A popular kindergarten teacher is shot dead in the driveway of her parents’ home on Mother’s Day. Today, almost four years later, the case is still unsolved. True Crime Recaps: Mother’s Day Nightmare! What Happened to Rachael Deltondo? Youtube 15.58, 2022
DELUNA, CARLOS [viz Miscarriages of Justice DeLuna, Carlos; viz Murder Cases: Hernandez, Carlos]: The Phantom TV - Guardian online -
Corpus Christi, Texas, 4th February 1983: 26-year-old Wanda Lopez was working alone behind the counter, and while on the phone to a police dispatcher, she was stabbed to death. The Phantom, news, Netflix 2021
That was not his [Carlos DeLuna] manner of committing crimes. He just was not the type to go and pull a knife on somebody. ibid. rozzer
The only evidence is eye-witness evidence. That’s the worst evidence in the world. ibid. prosecutor
When they pulled him out from under the truck, they found a wad of bills in his front pants pocket totalling $149, which was about the amount of money that was taken from the cash register. ibid. Carrico
If he stabbed her, why is there nothing on his clothing? ibid. old boy
He gave us the name Carlos Hernandez. ibid.
The jury convicted and gave DeLuna the death penalty. ibid. news
He [DeLuna] should have had some blood on his shoes. ibid. post-mortem old boy
He didn’t even know he was on Death Row. ibid. pen pal
14 years later, New York City, Professor Liebman: We found another case in Corpus Christi … We wanted to learn everything we could about this Carlos Hernandez … An entire story unfolded … A lot of it had to do with robbery of a convenience store. ibid.
The subject was found in her van in a vacant lot in Corpus Christi. She had a large X scratched – more scratched than cut – on her back … What kind of a murder was this? ibid. Post-mortem old boy
The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death: Groundbreaking Columbia law school study sets out in shocking detail the flaws that led to Carlos DeLuna’s execution in 1989. Guardian online article Ed Pilkington in New York 15th May 2012
DE MENEZES, JEAN CHARLES murder: viz Assassinations: DE MENEZES, JEAN CHARLES