Despite a barrage of apologies from top judges, William Mullins-Johnson says he has no faith left in the justice system that wrongfully convicted him in the 1993 murder of his four-year-old niece.
"To say it's unfortunate would be too mild to say with these types of situations. I really don't have the words to express the way I feel about the justice system," Mullins-Johnson told Canada AM on Tuesday.
"All those years were just melded into one chaotic event."
Monday's court ruling deemed pathological evidence used to convict the 37-year-old aboriginal man was worthless and showed no evidence of homicide or sexual injury in the death of his niece Valin.
However, the court did not grant Mullins-Johnson a historical first by going beyond an acquittal and establishing his complete innocence in the case. The ruling could have helped to clear his name with family members and the Northern Ontario community he is estranged from.
"I can't worry about what people think now. I couldn't worry about what people thought then. What matters is that I proved my innocence and my name is cleared," he said.
"I got my name back and I'll look ahead and go back to school and do the things in life that I've wanted to do."
Mullins-Johnson said his mother's unwavering support and guidance got him through his 12-year incarceration and fight for vindication.
"She was such a rock for me when I was in there," he said. "Me and mom, we do what we believe in and not what people say we should."
His lawyer, James Lockyer from the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, says the court will provide a written ruling explaining the reasoning behind the acquittal.
"The bottom line in this case is that there was no crime," Lockyer told Canada AM on Tuesday.
Lockyer said there are many Canadians fighting for a chance to go before the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
"There are plenty more where this came from. It's nice to get this case finally over, it's a big relief but there are plenty more behind it," he said.
Mullins-Johnson was freed on bail in 2005 pending a ministerial review after it was revealed key forensic evidence that could have been used in his defence was mislaid by disgraced pathologist Dr. Charles Smith.
A coroner's review of Smith's cases found he came to questionable conclusions in 20 child autopsies, 13 of them resulting in criminal charges.
In an opening statement on Monday, Crown prosecutor Ken Campbell said six "world renowned experts" found there was "no evidence of homicide and no evidence of sexual injury" to indicate Valin was sexually assaulted and strangled.
Ontario's chief forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Pollanen, testified Monday that a review of evidence that led to Mullins-Johnson's was a horrific misinterpretation.
Pollanen said anal and neck injuries, which were used to support a finding of sexual assault and homicide, were misread by Smith.
Pollanen said the bruising around the girl's neck was more likely caused by blood pooling after death, while the small lacerations found on a tissue sample appeared to have been made accidentally during the sample collection process.
A subsequent autopsy was unable to determine an exact cause of death.
