At 17, Donald Marshall Jr. was a young Mi'kmaq living with his family on the Membertou Reserve in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He had previous run-ins with the local police, but never anything too serious. Then one night, Donald met up with Sandy Seale, a young Black acquaintance, in a local park. What followed resulted in Sandy's murder and Donald being framed for the crime. The officer in charge of the murder investigation was determined to prove his guilt. He bullied other local teens into telling lies to make Marshall look guilty. This helped convict him for the murder. He spent 11 years in prison until he finally got a lucky break. Not only was he eventually acquitted of the crime, but a Royal Commission inquiry into his wrongful conviction found that a non-native would not have been convicted in the first place.