Steven Truscott - today is the day

Leslie

Leslie

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After more than 45 years, the youngest Canadian ever put on death row may hear a final verdict on a murder he says he didn't commit.

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler will announce Thursday whether the case against Steven Truscott for the murder of Lynne Harper should be reconsidered.

Truscott's lawyers argued in a brief to the justice minister in November 2001, that the case against their client was not sound in light of allegedly shoddy police work and the fact that key evidence was suppressed by investigators.

Former Quebec Court of Appeal judge Fred Kaufman was then appointed to head an inquiry into the case.

After reviewing Kaufman's 800-page report, Cotler has three options: He can dismiss the application, send the case back to a court of appeal or order a new trial. Declaring a new trial would effectively overturn the prior conviction.

James Lockyer, one of the lawyers representing Truscott through the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, hopes Cotler will order a new trial.

"Only then will Steven have the chance to rid himself -- we hope -- of demons that must have lived with him for now 45 years and three weeks," Lockyer has said.

Canada AM legal analyst Steven Skurka said he is reasonably certain that a new trial will be ordered. "And the minute that happens, Steven Truscott will be an innocent man."

Twelve-year-old Lynne Harper was found in a woodlot near Clinton, Ont. in June, 1959, two days after she was seen riding a bike with Truscott. She had been raped and strangled.

A day later, 14-year-old Truscott was arrested and charged with her murder after a single night of questioning. He was later convicted and condemned to death by hanging. He faced two execution dates before his sentence was commuted to life in prison.

During 10 years in prison, Truscott appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. He was eventually paroled in 1969.

Truscott has always said he saw Lynn get into a passing car.

After his release, Truscott married and had three children but lived anonymously for years. He finally stepped forward in 2000 to begin a campaign to clear his name.

Now a grandfather living in Guelph, Ont., Truscott has always maintained he is an innocent man who was convicted on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

Unlike other high-profile prisoners who have demanded compensation, Truscott says he wants nothing more than an apology to clear his name.
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This man's entire life has been spent in trying to make this over. He was on death row, he could have been killed over it, and there really is no proof he ever did the deed. It's a sad thing, wasted life. I'm rooting for him to see it over and done with.

I'm havin some major forgetting the link issues lately :blank:
 
Interesting. First of all, Didn't realize you canucks had the death penalty. Do you still hang people?

Second, and this may be a little bit of hoping, but, I would sure hope a court wouldn't convict someone and sentence them to death without ANY evidence. Surely there was something more than circumstantial evidence.
 
no...we don't still hang people. That's why he didn't die. Dumb luck.

and...our local yokel court systems were crap back then. We have these cases popping up regularly. I have no doubt that a court would have convicted on nothing back then. On this, there have been so many news stories and documentaries and rehashings, and I've seen no evidence whatsoever that he did this, besides the fact that she was last seen with him.
 
PT said:
Interesting. First of all, Didn't realize you canucks had the death penalty. Do you still hang people?
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That a good point, how is he going out? electric chair, lethal injections, hanging, firing squad, public beheading?
 
Ok, I'm just saying they may not be saying what all they had against him. Surely being seen with him last is Something, but not real evidence that he did it to her. I guess I just hope the truth does come out about this, whichever way it goes.

I would have to say if he had done it he wouldn't really have a reason to be fighting it now, so I would have to lean towards him being innocent.
 
Yeah, I suppose I'm just rooting for it to be over for this guy. After 45 years...I'd really just like to see it drop with no further anything regardless.
 
and the decision is in.
OTTAWA (CP) - Steven Truscott's 45-year battle to clear his name took a big step closer to resolution Thursday as the federal justice minister asked the Ontario Court of Appeal to review the case.

The decision means the court must decide whether Truscott got a fair trial in 1959 for the murder of Lynne Harper. Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said the evidence suggests there is a "reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in this case."

He called it a "tragic and painful case" for both the Harper and Truscott families.

Cotler also emphasized that he has no power to determine guilt or innocence.

"Only a court can do that," he said.

Truscott was 14 when he was convicted in the rape and murder of the 12-year-old Harper near Clinton, Ont.

He has always maintained his innocence.

His death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1960 after he spent four months on death row. He was released on parole in 1969 at the age of 24.

Lawyers with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted filed a thick legal brief in November 2001 asking the federal Justice Department to review Truscott's case.

They cited flawed pathology, shoddy police work and said evidence was suppressed at Truscott's 1959 trial that backed up his claim of innocence.

Police tunnel vision coupled with the desperate search for a culprit helped corner a scared young teenager, they argued.

Retired Quebec Court of Appeal justice Fred Kaufman reviewed the case and gave Cotler an 800-page report in the summer. It's contents have not been made public, but Cotler referred Thursday to unspecified "new evidence."

Corrections officials said Truscott was a model prisoner who simply didn't fit the criminal mould.

Truscott met and married his wife, Marlene, in 1970 and the couple moved to nearby Guelph, Ont. where they lived as Steve and Marlene Bowers - Steven's mother's maiden name.

The family lived in assumed anonymity, not able to openly associate with Truscott's relatives or attend family functions.

They raised three children. Truscott has spent most of his working life as a millwright in the same Guelph factory, a trade he learned in jail at Collins Bay Penitentiary.

In 2000, his children now grown, Truscott reclaimed his identity to plead for justice in a CBC documentary.

Fellow factory workers and neighbours have joined thousands of other Canadians in recent campaigns to clear his name.
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Cool...it's was sent to review now. It might actually be over soon.
 
Hanging is still used in Delaware and Washington, although both have lethal injection as an alternative method of execution. The last hanging to take place was January 25, 1996 in Delaware.
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I personally like Utah's firing squad better.
 
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