Steven Truscott Appeal
I don't think that many Americans will be familiar with this case. But here it is. This poor man was railroaded....yep I said it.....into a murder conviction at the age of 14. I remember reading a book. Not one where they take one side or the other, just where they questions the case and told you about all the additional facts that the police seemed to completely ignore. This man is now 61 and still trying to clear his name. He's been called a rapist, a murderer and a cold-blooded killer. And that's since he was 14. But on Monday, the now-61-year-old Steven Truscott finally reached the moment he'd been waiting half a century for - another chance at the Canadian justice system. The Ontario Court of Appeals finally began looking into his conviction for the killing of 12-year-old Lynne Harper back in 1959, a crime he always insisted he never committed. The story behind his conviction and commuted death sentence has now become legendary in Canadian justice circles. Truscott was found guilty of raping and killing Harper after she disappeared from an air force base in Clinton, Ontario. The young teen was the last person seen in her company. He was released on parole in 1969 and stayed in obscurity until resurfacing in 2000. The man looked different but his story was the same - he always maintained his innocence. When the Ontario government agreed to order a judicial review of his controversial case in 2004, he hoped the truth would finally come out. As he walked into court Monday, it was clear those hopes still burned bright. "We're just excited, nervous, glad to get it started," he relates. "We're confident. We've got excellent lawyers and an excellent group and a great bunch of Canadians standing behind us." And now there's good reason for him to believe he may finally be exonerated. A forensics expert testified that the coroner didn't have enough evidence to make his original estimate about when Harper died. The original doctor used Harper's stomach contents to definitely place her time of death at a moment when Truscott admitted he was with her, giving her a lift on his bike. But new evidence suggests that wasn't likely the case and she could have been killed as much as a day later. To those following this extraordinary case, it was a bombshell. "This is a pathological time bomb," insists author Julian Sher. "A testimonial time bomb because when Steven Truscott was sentenced to hang...(the pathologist) said the forensic evidence proved the time of death had to be between 7pm and 7:45pm. Now the chief coroner and a respected pathologist are saying it is not as certain as that. That science is much wider. "The minute you can push the time of death any time after 8:00, Steven Truscott has to be innocent." Dozens of witnesses are expected to testify at the appeal court review, some of whom were only nine years old when Harper was killed. The review is expected to last three weeks - and could result in a dismissal, a new trial, a stay of the proceedings, or what Truscott has wanted for 50 years - an outright acquittal. http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_1328.aspx here you can see more about this. Truscott Case Timeline http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_1321.aspx