New BrunswickRobert Mailman, a New Brunswick man who spent 18 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murder, has died at the age of 77. Robert Mailman, who spent 18 years in prison, was acquitted in January 2024 Hina Alam · CBC News · Posted: Oct 13, 2025 1:07 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoRobert Mailman was a convicted murderer for 40 years and spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. (Nick Purdon/CBC)A New Brunswick man who spent 18 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murder has died at the age of 77. Innocence Canada, the organization that led the legal fight to clear Robert Mailman’s name, confirmed today that he died in Saint John on Thursday, just before midnight.On Jan. 4, 2024, Mailman and his friend Walter Gillespie were acquitted by Chief Justice Tracey DeWare of New Brunswick’s Court of King’s Bench, 40 years after they were wrongly convicted in the 1983 murder of George Leeman.The judge apologized to the two men, saying they were victims of a “miscarriage of justice” in 1984. After Mailman was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in November 2023, he was given about three months to live.Gillespie died on April 20, 2024.
New Brunswick man wrongfully convicted in 1983 murder dies from cancer
