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After going through a number of appeals, trying to get a new trial, Steven was starting to give up, until an author wrote a book about him in 1966, making him the center of attention. The book said he was innocent, and that the police were wrong for locking him up. Though, even when he had most of the public on his side, he was still turned down for an appeal. Eventually, his death sentenced was overturned for a life sentence, and he was released on parole in 1969.

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After Steven's arrest and trial, he was quickly sentenced to death by the jury, who hurled names at him such has "Rapist Pig."

He would live in constant fear and desperately try to prove his innocents for the next decade.

(Right Click - Open New Link)

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I have written a a book about Steven Truscott.

For those who don't know, Steven was a 14-year-old kid living at an air base in Clinton, ON. On the sweltering hot night of June 9, 1959, Steven met up with a class-mate named Lynne Harper. She was 12 and like Steven, her parents worked for Royal Canadian Air Force base Clinton. Around 7 pm, Steven gave Lynne a bike ride to Highway 8 and dropped her off. He last saw her hitch-hiking at the side of the road, getting into a car. Steven biked back to the local school grounds around 8 pm and chatted with acquaintances. When asked, these acquaintances all said Steven looked and sounded perfectly normal. He wasn't even sweating heavily, on an extremely hot night. Steven chatted for a bit then cycled home, to be in time for 8:30 pm baby-sitting duties.

Lynne disappeared. She was found a couple days later in a wooded part of Clinton called Lawson's Bush. She was dead, and likely raped. Most of her clothing was removed and neatly piled up-shorts zipped up, socks rolled up-near her corpse. For some reason, her killer had arrayed three branches over her body, not for hiding but maybe for some weird fetish.

If a bank is robbed, it's standard operating procedure for police to check in on known bank robbers living in the vicinity of the bank that was robbed. In this case, police immediately zeroed in on Steven Truscott-a boy with no criminal record, no history of violence, or delinquency. Steven was the last person to be seen with Lynne. Ergo, he must have raped and killed her. Or so thought police who didn't even bother checking up on local sex offenders in the area.

Steven was interrogated for hours by police, without a lawyer and without a parent present most of the time. Police told him he was liar and tried to get him to confess to Lynne's death. He wouldn't budge. Steven insisted he had dropped her at the highway and she got into a stranger's car. Steven's interrogation went on until the early morning hours of June 13. Then, he was charged with murder and put in jail.

Steven was put on trial in Goderich, Ontario in the fall of 1959. He was found guilty despite virtually no physical evidence that tied him to the crime. None. No blood or semen residue, or pieces of his flesh under Lynne's fingernails. Nothing. The Crown's case was entirely circumstantial. Why a perfectly normal 14 year-old would suddenly decide to brutally rape and murder a classmate wasn't explained. Nor was it explained how he could have committed these crimes in the extremely brief window between meeting Lynne then biking home to babysit (without even breaking a sweat or getting blood on his clothes, no less).

Steven was 14 years-old, and on death row. Not eager to be seen murdering young teenagers, the Canadian government soon commuted Steven's sentence to life imprisonment. Steven was placed in the Guelph Training School for Boys (a facility for juvenile delinquents) until he was 18, then he was moved to Collins Bay Penitentiary in Kingston, ON. He continued to protest his innocence.

Steven's case was reviewed in an unprecedented hearing by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1966. They voted 8-1 to uphold the verdict. Steven spent three more years in jail, then was released on parole.

Capital punishment was abolished in Canada in 1976. Steven had escaped the hangman's noose, but remained a convicted murderer in the eyes of the law and had to live under an assumed name.

In the mid-1990s, a new diagnostic tool appeared on the scene that proved invaluable in criminal cases. Testing for DNA-that is, the molecular building blocks of life-became widespread. DNA testing allowed authorities to determine if there was a biological link between a suspect and a victim or a crime scene. If a suspect left trace amounts of blood, saliva, hair, semen or skin behind, these traces could be tested for DNA. If the DNA matched that of the suspect, chances were they were guilty.

Conversely, DNA testing could also prove a suspect was innocent. The absence of DNA helped secure the release of two men-Guy Paul Morin and David Milgaard from prison in the mid-1990s. Like Steven, both had been jailed for murder. Turns out, they didn't kill anybody.

Steven became involved with a group called the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), a non-profit band of lawyers who had helped Morin fight his charges. AIDWYC wanted to use DNA to clear Steven. Only problem was, all the evidence in the case including, swabs, clothing, hair samples, had been destroyed shortly after Steven's trial. Authorities exhumed Lynne Harper to see if her body could reveal any DNA clues. Only her remains were in such bad shape, no DNA samples could be taken.

Steven and AIDWYC fought on. Steven appeared on-camera in a CBC-TV documentary in 2000 that detailed his case. Questions about his conviction were raised in the House of Commons. The federal justice minister ordered a review of the case. The review suggested Steven was wrongly convicted. The Ontario Court of Appeal was then tasked with determining if this was the case.

On August 28, 2007, the Court of Appeal squashed Steven's conviction and acquitted him. The Ontario Attorney-General apologized to Steven on behalf of the provincial government. Steven was no longer a convicted murderer in the eyes of the law.

Steven's case might be hard for people to grasp, in this era of CSI and TV shows featuring magic scientific tools for investigating crime.

If DNA testing had existed in 1959, police could have used it to determine if Steven was guilty or not and, equally important, track down Lynne Harper's real killer.

Which makes me wonder, how many people have been put to death based on evidence as shaky as that presented at Steven's trial?

If society tolerates the death penalty, then it at least must satisfy without a single doubt that the person they execute is in fact guilty.

Mandatory DNA testing in all capital cases is what I say, to prevent future cases of innocent boys sentenced to die for things they didn't do.

Steve Truscott: Decades of Injustice, is available at Amazon in paperback and on Kindle and at Chapters on Kobo.

Link to my other crime books on Amazon: http://qr.net/fg8j

-30-

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I have written a a book about Steven Truscott. For those who don't know, Steven was a 14-year-old kid living at an air base in Clinton, ON. On the sweltering hot night of June 9, 1959, Steven met up with a class-mate named Lynne Harper.

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After some time, the Appeals Court Acquitted Steven of his crimes. His daughter is shown here, giving her thoughts about her father's case.

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Worst Cases Of People Being Wrongly Accused

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A Canadian court acquitted Steven Truscott today and called his murder conviction "A Miscarriage Of Justice". http://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/think-and-grow-rich/198261

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Steven Truscott's classmate, Lynne Harper was found dead, starting the manhunt that would end up wrongfully convicting Steven Truscott of rape and murder.

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After being proven innocent by The Court of Appeals Steven was placed on Canada's list of innocents who were wrongfully convicted on crimes they didn't commit.

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We've helped exonerate 21 innocent people since 1993.

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Steven Truscott's Case Update Before The Big Win

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Steven Truscott's Case Update Before The Big Win

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This video updates the viewers on the situation of the case before Steven Truscott won 6.5 million dollars from the Canadian Government as reparations, and was recognized as innocent.

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In 2007, Steven Truscott's conviction was overturned, but had been free on parole since October 21st of 1969.

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Steven Truscott Questions.

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I’m completing my case study on Steven Truscott.        2)  Steven Truscott was a school boy in 1959 when he dropped off a classmate by the name of Lynne Harper at the side of the road. Riding off, he saw her get into a suspicious looking car and drive off. Later, she was found dead in the bushes...

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This video outlines the history of the Steven Truscott case. Steven planned for this to be his "coming out," as he lived anonymously before this interview/documentary. It brought his case back to public's eyes.

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Steven Truscott - His Word Against History - the fifth estate

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It was a hot, muggy evening in 1959 when 14-year-old Steven Truscott gave his schoolmate Lynn Harper a ride on his bicycle near an air force base outside Clinton, Ontario. Two days later, the girl's body was found in a wooded grove near the town. She had been raped and strangled.

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After being accused by the police for killing his classmate, Steven Truscott was brought in for murder. He was to be sentenced as an adult rather than a minor at the age of 14.