Unlucky to the End by Richard W. Pound
On 12 March 1976 Calgary police officer Allan Keith Harrison was shot and killed following a robbery at the Ingleside Credit Union. By the end of the year, Janise Marie Gamble, a twenty-one year-old girl from Peterborough, Ontario, had been convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to the mandatory twenty-five to life. It was clear that Gamble had not fired the shot that killed Harrison, but it was less clear whether she had participated in the robbery that had led to his murder.
In Unlucky to the End Richard Pound provides a detailed and thought-provoking examination of the circumstances of the robbery, the subsequent flight of the suspects and murder of the policeman, as well as the hostage scene that led to the death of one of the robbers. He uses transcripts from the Calgary trial to explore Gamble’s conviction and details the efforts that, after fourteen years in the desolate Kingston Prison for Women, finally led to her parole.
Pound argues that Gamble’s first degree murder sentence was based on legislation not in force at the time the crime was committed and resulted in a much harsher sentence than would have applied under the existing law. The ongoing enforcement of that sentence violated the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment contained in the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Gamble’s story is a searing account of an abusive relationship and its tragic result.
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