Larry Fisher : Serial rapist who saw innocent man jailed in his place, dies in prison

A serial rapist who let an innocent man spend more than two decades in jail in his place has died in prison.

Larry Earl Fisher died Tuesday at the age of 65 while jailed in Abbotsford’s Pacific Institution.

“It’s not an unexpected death,” said Samantha Cater, a prison spokeswoman. “There’s nothing suggesting any foul play.”

David Milgaard is one of the longest-serving wrongfully convicted men in Canadian history.

He was just 16 years old when he was charged with the Jan. 31, 1969, rape and murder of Saskatoon nursing student Gail Miller.

He spent 23 years in prison and was released after the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1992 and ordered a new trial.

Charges against him were stayed but not dropped, so his name wasn’t cleared until July 1997 when DNA evidence confirmed Fisher was the culprit.

Fisher, who had already been convicted of previous sexual assaults as well as rape and attempted murder, was convicted in November 1999 of Miller’s rape and murder.

Officials did not release the cause of Fisher’s death.

The government of Saskatchewan paid Milgaard $10 million in compensation for his ordeal.

Agencies/Canadajournal