The Newfoundland and Labrador government has spent almost $11 million arising from three mishandled murder convictions, and will undoubtedly spend more, the province's outgoing justice minister says.

"It was a very expensive, very expensive lesson of things that went wrong … 10, 15 years ago," said Tom Marshall, who nonetheless feels the money has been well spent.

Tom Marshall said the justice system will benefit from the lessons it has learned from the Lamer Inquiry.
(CBC)

The province paid about $7.4 million for a judicial inquiry — headed by Antonio Lamer, the retired chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada — into the cases of Gregory Parsons, Randy Druken and Ronald Dalton.

The province has also compensated Parsons and Druken for their wrongful murder convictions, with payments of $1.3 million and $2 million, respectively.

Marshall, immediately after releasing Lamer's final report last year, apologized to Dalton for the province's part in the eight-year wait he endured in prison for a new trial to be ordered.

A lawyer for Dalton, who was found not guilty at a second trial, is negotiating a compensation package with the government.

Marshall, who will soon replace the retiring Loyola Sullivan as finance minister, said the justice system will improve because of the Lamer inquiry experience.

"It would be great if we didn't have to spend the money there, if we could spend it on long-term-care facilities, and to help the poor and to help home care, and education and things like that, but the administration of justice is an essential element of a civil society," Marshall said.

"It's money that we have to spend."

Additional expenses, apart from any compensation to be paid to Dalton, are likely.

An independent review of the public prosecutions office is underway. It's being led by William Marshall, a retired justice on the Newfoundland Supreme Court of Appeals. Marshall said he expects any recommended changes to come with a price tag.

"I look on that as a real opportunity to provide the Crown attorneys in this province with extra money for resources and training that they will need to do the very important job we ask them to do," he said.