After spending 23 years in prison, for a murder he did not commit, David Milgaard says he is making peace with the past.
Milgaard was 16 when he was wrongfully convicted of a brutal murder. He was on a road trip and arrived in Saskatoon the same day nursing assistant Gail Miller was found raped and stabbed to death.
"They threw me in a cage and told me ‘You are arrested for capital murder,'" remembers Milgaard.
Coerced statements convicted him and, two decades later, DNA evidence exonerated him.
After receiving his settlement in 1999, Milgaard travelled the world to celebrate his freedom.
He visited more than two dozen countries and became an avid outdoorsman before deciding to settle in Calgary.
Milgaard, 58, is now finding new joy in fatherhood.
"It's hectic. I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old and it's a big job to take care of my family," says Milgaard. "The feeling I have today is my world is pretty bright. I have two kids, which I never expected to have, and they are God's gifts for me."
Despite the joy he finds in life, he still struggles to cope with the years he lost behind bars.
"I wake up inside a dream sometimes where I feel I am inside prison. But the good side of the situation is that I can wake up and I am not in prison," says Milgaard.
Milgaard tries not to focus on the painful memories but he does maintain a couple of links to the system the failed him.
When he wants to relax, he turns to leatherwork which is a skill he learned in prison.
He also volunteers to help prison inmates who are preparing for release. He does this work through the Central Mennonite Community which is a group that helped him during his incarceration.
