Coffin affair Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Coffin affair was an event in Canadian history which occurred in June 1953 in Gaspesie, Quebec, when three men from Pennsylvania were reported missing. Their bodies are later found, near the end of July that year, deep in the woods, sixty kilometres from the nearest town.A suspect in the murders was William Coffin, who was found to have many items belonging to the men in his possession. Coffin was sent to trial in July 1954 and the evidence against him was, at best, circumstantial. The penal code prohibited multiple convictions of murder in the same trial, so he was convicted with one count of murder. On August 5, he was found guilty and sentenced to hanging. Appeals to the Quebec Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Canada were rejected. Coffin was hanged at Montreal's Bordeaux Prison on February 10, 1956.
Senator Jacques Hebert, a reporter during the trial, later released two essays, in 1958 and in 1963, stating his belief that Coffin was innocent. The latter essay caused such controversy that an inquiry commission was formed to attempt to rule out any wrongdoing in the Coffin case. After the inquiry interviewed 200 witnesses, the commission found Coffin did receive a fair trial.
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