Glen Assoun is greeted by family and friends at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax after learning he was a free man. Assoun spent nearly 17 years in prison for a crime he has maintained he did not commit. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

Halifax man cleared of murder after 17 years in prison

A Nova Scotia man who served 17 years in prison for murder has been acquitted in Halifax after a 21-year legal battle to prove his innocence.

Glenn Assoun was convicted of second-degree murder in September of 1999 for the 1995 murder his girlfriend, Brenda LeAnne Way, who was 29 at the time.

The conviction carried a life sentence with no chance of parole for 18 years.

Brenda Way was found stabbed to death in a Dartmouth apartment in 1995. Glen Assoun was convicted four years later of second-degree murder. He is now a free man.

However, Assoun was freed on bail in November 2014 based on evidence that he may have been wrongly convicted.

As his family wept quietly in the courtroom on Friday, the crown dropped the case, effectively exonerating Assoun, who is now 63.

Earlier Friday, Federal Justice Minister David Lametti quashed the murder conviction, saying Assoun should be granted a new trial.

Prosecutors declined to do so, saying there was not enough evidence to convict.

“I never gave up, I knew this day would come. I just didn’t know when” Assoun said afterwards.

Way’s body was discovered behind an apartment building in Dartmouth.

She had been stabbed multiple and her throat was cut.

Members of her family said Way, a former prostitute, was living with her father and clearing up her life when she died.

Glen Assoun, at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax, after being acquitted. (Robert Short/CBC)

Assoun always maintained his innocence, but kept running into legal brick walls.

After the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal rejected his appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his case, he turned to the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Accused, now known as Innocence Canada.

A team of Toronto-based lawyers took over and began lobbying the federal justice minister to examine the case.

Their work paid off in the Halifax courtroom on Friday.

“You kept the faith with your remarkable dignity,” Justice James Chipman said Friday, addressing Assoun.

“You are to be commended for your courage and resilience. You are a free man. I sincerely wish you every success.

With files from CBC, CTV, CP, Global

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