A British Columbia court has approved a request for further DNA testing in the case of a man who has served 35 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit.
Phillip Tallio pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November, 1983, about six months after the rape and murder of his 22-month-old cousin in the small community of Bella Coola, B.C.
Mr. Tallio was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. But he has maintained his innocence ever since and remains in prison more than three decades later. He was 17 at the time of the killing and is one of the country’s longest-serving inmates.
The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled Monday that a request from Mr. Tallio for additional DNA testing was in the interests of justice.
“In this case, there appears to be evidence that excludes Mr. Tallio as the perpetrator and evidence that does not exclude Mr. Tallio as the perpetrator. He seeks further scientific testing that may exculpate him. It may also inculpate him. That is a risk he is willing to take,” Justice Elizabeth Bennett wrote in the unanimous three-judge ruling.
Outside court, Rachel Barsky, one of Mr. Tallio’s lawyers, described the decision as a “very significant step forward.”
Theresa Hood, who was pregnant with Mr. Tallio’s child when he was arrested, said in an interview that she was very pleased with the decision.
“I feel that it’s going to prove that he’s innocent, like he’s been saying for the last 35 years of his life,” she said.
There was no direct evidence linking Mr. Tallio to the murder, and the case rested on his alleged confessions to police and to a forensic psychiatrist, both of which raised serious questions at the time.
In the first statement, Mr. Tallio is alleged to have confessed to RCMP after 10 hours of interrogation, during which the cognitively impaired teen had not been given a chance to speak with a lawyer or anyone else who could assist him. Although he maintained his innocence in the recorded interrogation, he apparently confessed during a period in which the police tape recorder failed. That alleged confession was excluded from Mr. Tallio’s trial because of questions as to whether it was voluntary.
The other alleged confession was made to forensic psychiatrist Robert Pos and was also unrecorded. Mr. Tallio later denied making either confession and said he’d never even spoken with the psychiatrist. As with other key participants in the case, Dr. Pos is now deceased.
The court was considering whether to admit the alleged statement made to Dr. Pos when Mr. Tallio accepted a plea deal for second-degree murder. Pleading guilty to second-degree meant he would be eligible for parole after a decade, rather than the minimum 25-year parole eligibility for first-degree murder.
But Mr. Tallio has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence and has been repeatedly denied parole because of his refusal to accept responsibility for the crime.
The B.C. Court of Appeal last year ruled Mr. Tallio could appeal his conviction, decades after the deadline to do so had passed. His application to appeal focused on DNA evidence, concerns about the police investigation, evidence of Mr. Tallio’s cognitive limitations and reports of systemic racism, among other things.
In Monday’s ruling, the appeal court noted that some DNA samples, which were taken at the victim’s autopsy, have already been tested in recent years. The court said the first round of testing had ruled out Mr. Tallio.
However, it said he could not be excluded as a possible contributor in the second round of DNA testing. Counsel for Mr. Tallio has noted his uncle also could not be ruled out in that round.
The Crown had argued the DNA results were likely contaminated and further testing should not occur because it would not produce a satisfactory result.
But in its Monday decision, the court said the interests of justice demanded that further tests be performed.
With a report from Jana Pruden