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I chose to complete my case study on Steven Truscott

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In 1959 Steven Truscott who was 14 years old at the time, was charged with the murder of Lynne Harper; his classmate. It was alleged that Truscott had given Lynne a ride on his bicycle days later Lynne was found dead. It was alleged that Truscott had sexually assaulted then murdered Lynne Harper. Steven Truscott spent 50 years trying to clear his name before he was acquitted in 2007 by the Ontario Court Of Appeal

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In this short video different facts about the Steven Truscott care are highlighted

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Worst Cases Of People Being Wrongly Accused

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The curtail evidence that set Steven free was the pathologist letter. The pathologist wrote a letter to the head police investigator in the Truscott case in 1977. In the letter the pathologist stated that he had made an agonizing reappraisal in regards to his testimony.
Another piece of evidence that came to light was from an elderly couple. They had told investigators that soon after the murder they had seen a young female hitchhiking around where Truscott had claimed he left Lynne at.

In 2002 Truscott's case was reviewed and appealed. A year later Steven Truscott was acquitted.

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For nearly five decades, Steven Truscott lived under the shadow of a wrongful murder conviction.

Steven Murray Truscott was a popular, athletic teenager who lived with his parents in the southwestern Ontario town of Clinton. In 1959, at the age of 14, he was wrongly convicted of killing his 12-year-old schoolmate Lynne Harper. Not until five decades later was he finally exonerated.

Lynne Harper Murder

On the evening of 9 June 1959 several witnesses saw Steven Truscott cycling with Lynne Harper through the countryside - Truscott carrying her on the handlebars of his bicycle. Two days later, the girl's remains were found just off a tractor trail in a lightly wooded area known as Lawson's Bush, on the outskirts of Clinton.

Truscott became an immediate suspect. Questioned by police, he maintained that he had given the girl a lift to a highway intersection approximately a kilometre west of town, where some believe Lynne intended to hitch a ride to her grandmother's home in a nearby community. Police found details of his account deceptive and promptly arrested Truscott for murder.

With a population of just 3,500, Clinton - located near Lake Huron about 200 km west of Toronto - was divided evenly between long-time local residents and military families who worked at Canadian Forces Base Clinton, a nearby radar-training base. Both the Truscott and Harper families belonged to the military community.

Steven Truscott, born in Vancouver on 18 January 1945, was the son of a non-commissioned air force officer, Dan, and his wife Doris. They had arrived in Clinton in 1956, a year before the Harper family was transferred there.

The abduction and murder traumatized the community to a point where Truscott was denied bail. The Crown also succeeded in having his upcoming trial transferred to adult court, ensuring that Truscott could be potentially sentenced to either life imprisonment or execution.

Trial and Conviction

Truscott's jury trial consumed 15 days. The prosecution case was based on an assertion that Harper was a cautious girl who did not hitchhike. It alleged that Truscott sexually assaulted Harper, strangled her with her blouse and then arranged a few tree branches to partially cover her remains.

The prosecution highlighted a series of seemingly inconsistent statements Truscott had made in his statements to police, as well as the existence of a mysterious abrasion on his penis. It also questioned why Truscott did not reveal until at least a day after Harper disappeared that he had seen her get into a Chevrolet at the spot where her left her on Highway 8. Finally, it cited evidence that fresh bicycle tire tracks were found leading along the tractor path to the body site.

Mr. Truscott's defence lawyer, Frank Donnelly, maintained that the victim dismounted from Mr. Truscott's handlebars hundreds of metres past the entrance to the tractor trail where her body had been found, making it most unlikely that he had taken her all the way back to the tractor trail site in order to kill her.

Truscott repeated his assertion to police that he had seen Lynne picked up by a 1959 Chevrolet with an out-of-province licence plate.

Timing was critical to the case. Pathologist John Penistan, who conducted an autopsy of the victim, testified that her half-digested stomach contents revealed that Lynne had died between 7:15 p.m. -7:45 p.m. This narrow window of opportunity proved to be damning evidence against Truscott, since it was certain that he had been with her during that time. The brief window also lessened the possibility of a stranger having picked Lynne up on the highway and driven her back across the bridge toward the tractor path where she died.

The trial featured a good deal of testimony from children who had been playing under the bridge that evening and saw Truscott with Harper. Both the Crown and defence used the children's accounts to bolster their own contentions about the timing of events.

Truscott was found guilty on 30 September 1959. His conviction and the imposition of a death sentence caused a significant public clamour. A year later, the federal government commuted his sentence to life imprisonment with a 10-year parole eligibility period. Truscott's subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was rejected.

Truscott Paroled

In 1966, a book by Isabel LeBourdais stirred up controversy anew. The Trial of Steven Truscott made a detailed case for the young man having been railroaded by careless police officers and a vindictive prosecution. LeBourdais was particularly critical of Dr. Penistan's conclusions, and of apparent discrepancies with the evidence gathered by Ontario Provincial Police investigators. She was also critical of the manner in which statements from underage witnesses were obtained and used by the Crown.

A special reference to the Supreme Court of Canada led to the case being re-examined in 1966; however, the Supreme Court ruled that his case had been justly decided.

Truscott was paroled in 1969 and disappeared into anonymity. For almost 30 years, he lived under the media radar in Guelph, Ontario. His identity was known only to some members of the community and to his co-workers at a company where Truscott was employed as a millwright. To the outside world, he was known only by his assumed name, Steven Bowers.

AIDWYC Investigates

Under Section 690 of the Criminal Code, Truscott could apply to have his conviction reviewed and potentially referred for a retrial. First, however, the Department of Justice had to be satisfied that fresh evidence in the case could affect the outcome of his trial.

Lawyers from the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) dug into the background of the case, eventually obtaining 3,000 pages of material not before disclosed to the defence. The group drafted a 700-page brief that raised multiple instances of evidence that, according to AIDWYC, hadn't been adequately investigated or had been improperly suppressed.

At the same time, AIDWYC lawyers worked with the CBC program The Fifth Estate to stoke public interest about the long-ago case. A producer at the program, Julian Sher, also produced a book, Until You Are Dead, arguing for Truscott's innocence.

The thrust of the fresh evidence was that the Crown had suppressed information from children that could have been used by the defence to confirm Truscott's claim that he rode across the bridge and left Harper at Highway 8.

The defence had also obtained a previously undisclosed police report showing that the bicycle tire tracks on the tractor trail were likely to have been left there at least a week before Harper was killed, rendering them meaningless as evidence.

Pathologist's Letter

Perhaps the most significant new evidence was the discovery of a letter Dr. Penistan had written in 1966 to the lead police investigator in the case, Harold Graham. Sent on the eve of the 1966 Supreme Court of Canada appeal, Penistan admitted in the letter that he had made an "agonizing reappraisal" of his testimony at the Truscott trial and concluded that he should not have supplied such a narrow window-of-time opportunity.

The letter had never been disclosed to the defence.

A final item of undisclosed evidence involved an elderly couple who had told investigators soon after the murder that they had spotted a young girl hitchhiking, around the spot Truscott claimed to have left Harper that night, at roughly the time she disappeared.

Truscott's lawyers put forward an alternative suspect in the murder - a one-time air force sergeant named Alexander Kalichuk, who had been transferred away from Clinton two years before the Harper murder but had maintained links with the community. Kalichuk had been arrested in St. Thomas, Ontario, three weeks prior to the Harper murder, for attempting to lure a young girl into his car.

The failure to disclose evidence that was potentially favourable to Truscott was not illegal under rules and conventions existing at the time. However, much had changed in the years since then. The Supreme Court of Canada, in a landmark 1991 case known as R v Stinchcombe, had ruled that there was a constitutional obligation on the part of the state to disclose potentially relevant evidence to a defendant.

Appeal and Acquittal

In 2002, the federal government appointed retired Québec Court of Appeal Justice Fred Kaufman to review Truscott's Section 690 application. Kaufman, who had earlier presided over an inquiry into the wrongful conviction of Guy Paul Morin, recommended that the Ontario Court of Appeal reopen the Truscott case to permit a full appeal. The federal minister of justice agreed.

A special five-judge panel of the Court of Appeal began hearing the fresh evidence in mid-2006. A year later, it acquitted Truscott outright, in part because it said a fair retrial would be impossible so many years after the fact.

In media interviews, Truscott recalled waking up every morning of his initial period behind bars wondering if he would be executed before the day was out. He also said that he had been drugged with LSD and truth serum during his incarceration by authorities in the hope that it would induce him to confess.

"I'm not bitter," Truscott told journalists. "You can't live day after day being bitter . . . I've moved on with my life. My wife and I raised a family. I was always taught to look at things positively."

Meanwhile, Lynne Harper's father maintained that he and other close family members were skeptical of Truscott's innocence.

Steven Truscott and AIDWYC member Julien LeBourdais. For nearly five decades, Truscott lived under the shadow of a wrongful murder conviction, before being exonerated.

Truscott continues to live in Guelph with his wife, Marlene. He was awarded $6.5 million in compensation by the Ontario government in 2008, part of which Truscott used to launch the Truscott Initiative in Justice Studies at the University of Guelph, funding two scholarships for students in the field.

See also: Truscott's Quest for Vindication Continues.

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For nearly five decades, Steven Truscott lived under the shadow of a wrongful murder conviction. Steven Murray Truscott was a popular, athletic teenager who lived with his parents in the southwestern Ontario town of Clinton. In 1959, at the age of 14, he was wrongly convicted of killing his 12-year-old schoolmate Lynne Harper.

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After many years Lynnes' family choses to speak on the matter.

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The family of Lynne Harper finally broke their silence Wednesday to talk about the "mental distress" they have suffered while watching the acquittal of the man they have always believed to be her killer.

Steven Truscott, who was convicted as a teen of raping and murdering 12-year-old Lynne in 1959, was cleared of the charges Tuesday in a unanimous judgment of the Ontario Court of Appeal.

The court stopped short of declaring Mr. Truscott innocent, but nevertheless gave him reason to declare victory in his long-fought legal battle.

While Mr. Truscott and his supporters celebrated in Toronto, on the other side of the continent, Lynne's 90-year-old father, Leslie, had to take the news sitting down in his private room at a nursing home in the western United States. When he heard the verdict, he said, his legs went numb.

"All I can think about is the cruel 50 years of mental distress," Mr. Harper said, hoarse-voiced in a telephone interview Wednesday. "The joy, the jumping up and down on the streets where he [Mr. Truscott]was yesterday, it doesn't sit too well.

"I'm numb, as a matter of fact. I'm to the point where I don't feel as if I can even stand up or walk."

Mr. Harper, whose wife Shirley died several years ago of a heart attack, stayed up all night before the 300-page judgment was released.

When his eldest son, Barry, called him about it, Mr. Harper was stunned.

Mr. Harper passed up the opportunity to speak directly to Attorney-General Michael Bryant because he prefers to hear news about Lynne's case from Barry.

While he still possesses all of the faculties required to digest the thick document that contains the court's rationale for acquitting Mr. Truscott, the elder Mr. Harper says he doesn't have the stomach for it.

"A little girl was never given an opportunity to live," he said.

He and the rest of his family have believed that Mr. Truscott was guilty since he was first convicted as a teen in 1959. Even after all these years, Mr. Harper cannot force himself to say Mr. Truscott's name.

The Harpers have been haunted by Lynne's murder since the day her body was found. "He still has things that belong to my sister that he picks up on a daily basis," Barry said of his father. "He's never gotten over his sorrow."

At the time of Lynne's killing, the Harpers had only been living at RCAF Clinton, a base in southwestern Ontario, for about two years. Mr. Harper was a flight lieutenant. His wife, Shirley, stayed home to care for their three children, Lynne, 12, Barry, who was in Grade 10, and Jeffrey, who was only four years old when Lynne's body was found in Lawson's Bush.

"I think my sister was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Barry, whose recollection of the days before and after Lynne's killing are pristine. Still, he's shied away from speaking publicly about them - aside from a deposition he gave during a two-year review of the case in 2002 - because the courts, until now, have upheld Mr. Truscott's guilt.

"Years ago, when the Supreme Court threw the appeal out, I thought that was the end of it," Barry said. "The thing has got a life of its own."

Now, Lynne's funeral still runs like a movie reel through Barry's mind.

"The funeral procession went from Clinton all the way to St. Thomas. That's got to be about 60 or 65 miles," he said. "There were Brownies and Girl Guides standing on the sides of the street as the [hearse]went by. It was something that kinds of sticks in your mind."

Six months later, when Mr. Truscott was convicted, he was only 14. Still, he had already earned a reputation among the youngsters at RCAF Clinton as being more interested in schoolgirls than books, Barry said. Although he was closer to Steven Truscott's older brother, Ken, Barry remembers being paired as a defensive line mate with Steven. "I grew up with that guy," he said.

Now an engineer for an auto-parts manufacturer in the United States, Barry still keeps a cache of newspaper and magazine clippings documenting his sister's case, which has been immortalized in several movies and books, although he rarely needs to refer to them. He's carried with him for nearly 50 years the memories of his family's destruction.

"My dad wouldn't talk to anybody. He'd go to work and come back and sit in the chair and think about what happened, I guess."

Barry said that after the killing, the muted family remained on the base, but their only outings were for Sunday dinners at the base dining room.

"I don't think they did any socializing," he said. "From the time of the trial to the time we moved, we didn't do much of anything."

After Mr. Truscott's conviction, the Harpers left for a month-long respite in New Brunswick. They avoided as much as possible speaking to the media while working through their terrible pain. Eventually, they moved to a different air force base in Langar, England, where they tried to get on with their lives. But over the years, as Mr. Truscott pressed on with his campaign for exoneration, healing became impossible.

"You never want to see someone who was innocent convicted of something," the elder Mr. Harper said Wednesday. "But this is about money."

The Harpers have long felt that part of Mr. Truscott's motive in continuing the efforts to clear his name has been to win a hefty compensation package from the government.

On Tuesday, Mr. Truscott's lawyer, James Lockyer, said his client should "get every penny he can out of the government after what he has been through." Former Appeal Court judge Sydney Robins has been appointed by the provincial government to review the issue. However, he said he must first decide whether Mr. Truscott, who has not been deemed innocent, is entitled to an award.

"The issue turns on the fact that there was no explicit finding of factual innocence in the case," Mr. Robins told The Canadian Press Wednesday.

Both Harpers said they will try to block any payout to Mr. Truscott. Barry said he has spoken with provincial officials to notify them that he and his father both plan to make written submissions to Mr. Robins on why they think compensation should be denied.

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Lynne Harper's family speaks out on Truscott

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The family of Lynne Harper finally broke their silence Wednesday to talk about the "mental distress" they have suffered while watching the acquittal of the man they have always believed to be her killer. Steven Truscott, who was convicted as a teen of raping and murdering 12-year-old Lynne in 1959, was cleared of the charges Tuesday in a unanimous judgment of the Ontario Court of Appeal.

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Ruhl Berry, a retired OPP believed that Larry Talbot; who is now deceased should have been a suspect in the murder of Lynne Harper. Ruhl stated that he had made many attempts to have Talbot considered as a suspect in the case due to him being linked to other sexual assaults. The factors that Ruhl believed made him a potential suspect was his shoe size, as well as the car he drove

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Harry Seyeau, an OPP who helped convict Truscott testified that him, along with his colleagues did not do research regarding any sexual predators within the area that Lynne was raped and murdered. It was also testified that Bob Lawson, a farmer who owned land nearby where Lynne was found, seen a strange car parked outside his property the night Lynne went missing  and called to police to report it but they didn't seem interested. Bob also stated that Jocelyn Gaudet; the key witness that testified that Steven set a date for her to meet him in the woods, had came to his farm and asked him to change his story inorder for it to match her testimony.

Karen Jutsi, whom testified when she was 9 years old, told the Ontario court of appeal that she was reading over her testimony years later and realized her testimony was wrong

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After Steven was aquitted he moved to Guelph. While staying in Guelph Truscott remained quiet about his conviction. After a few years later Truscott broke silence and participated in an interview with " fifth estate documentary"

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Interviewer: Peter Mansbridge
Original Airdate: November 28, 2001

His story, many people claim, led to the end of capital punishment in Canada.

After serving 10 years in prison, Steven Truscott moved to a small community in Ontario where he remained anonymous and silent about his controversial arrest, trial and conviction.

A few years ago he came out of seclusion for a fifth estate documentary.

Tonight, he talks to Peter Mansbridge about a new project: a call for an inquiry into what happened to him.

Steven Truscott, age 14

PETER MANSBRIDGE: In 1959, the school boy lost his freedom, most of his formative years and almost his life.

His name is Steven Truscott. At the age of 14, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to die. His story is one of the most famous in Canadian judicial history. And after more than four decades, Steven Truscott wants to clear his name. Tomorrow he'll officially ask Ottawa to do just that.

Tonight Steven Truscott came here to explain why. First, a bit of background. It was June 1959. A hot and muggy late spring evening near the Clinton Air Force Base in southern Ontario. But it was an evening that would turn into tragedy and controversy.

Lynn Harper, age 12

This was when 14 year old Steven Truscott took his classmate, 12 year old Lynn Harper for a short bicycle ride.

Two days later, Lynn's body was found. She'd been raped and strangled in a nearby wood. Within two days, Truscott was charged with Harper's murder. After a two week trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. The death penalty was commuted and Truscott went to prison where he would spend the next 10 years.

Found two days later

The case was immediately controversial, first because someone so young had been sentenced to die, but also because of doubts about Truscott's guilt. In the mid 1960's, a book that questioned the hasty police investigation and the trial procedures led to an uproar in parliament, demonstrations on the street and a Supreme Court review. But the Supreme Court upheld the verdict and Truscott remained in prison until he was paroled in 1969.

Book sparked second look

In the decades after that, Steven Truscott lived under an assumed name in Guelph, Ontario. He married and raised three children. Although his case and the Truscott name were known across Canada, he remained anonymous until March of 2000 when the CBC's "The Fifth Estate" broadcast a documentary about the case. On that program, Canadians saw and heard from Steven Truscott for the first time in 25 years. Linden MacIntyre was the reporter on the story.

Served 10 years

LINDEN MACINTYRE: Important evidence was overlooked. Important evidence pointing in other directions. Very flimsy circumstantial evidence that pointed towards him was actually torqued up to have a greater impact on an unsophisticated jury. And one very significant piece of evidence was actually misconstrued, manipulated to make it look like he did it. Evidence from a pathologist who subsequently actually changed his tune. He reevaluated his assessment and changed his mind. And nobody, nobody took, nobody bothered to take that seriously.

MANSBRIDGE: Truscott's case has been taken up by the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted, a group that includes lawyers who helped establish the innocence of Guy-Paul Morin, David Milgaard, and Donald Marshall. A new book also argues the case that Truscott is not guilty.

MACINTYRE: Canadians do feel uncomfortable, even more than 40 years after this, this capture of our legal history, they're still uncomfortable with it and they want resolution. Not closure. They want some resolution. It's out there, this deep routed Canadian sense of right and wrong has been offended by the Truscott case. And this is the last opportunity, I think, we will have certainly in Truscott's lifetime to bring some redress.

MANSBRIDGE: Tomorrow, armed with new evidence, Truscott and his lawyers will file a formal appeal with the federal Justice Minister for a review of the case.

PETER MANSBRIDGE: Joining us in studio, Steven Truscott. What do you think of when you see those old pictures going by from 40 years ago?

STEVEN TRUSCOTT: I think it brings everything back. But it was the only way to get out story out, to let everybody hear it.

The National, Nov. 28, 2001

MANSBRIDGE: Is it hard to watch those pictures again?

TRUSCOTT: No. It hasn't really been hard for me because at the time I was, I was 14 and you sort of move on with your life or you don't survive. And it's basically what I've done.

MANSBRIDGE: Well you did move on with your life after, after you served your sentence. But now in these last couple of years, you've, after being a very private person for so long, you've gone public. Why have you done that?

TRUSCOTT: I think the main reason is that I want to clear my name. I want my kids to have my name, my dad's name. And it was important to me to get everything out so that everybody could see. We had nothing to hide. And unfortunately, it took that long to get all the information that is available now.

MANSBRIDGE: Is it all about clearing your name? I mean you've seen others who have been wrongfully convicted who's not only had their names cleared, but they've been compensated. Some to a very large amount of money. Are you after compensation as well?

TRUSCOTT: No. The only thing that I am after is to clear my name. We've never discussed any compensation with AIDWYC or anybody else.

The National, Nov. 28, 2001

MANSBRIDGE: That's the legal defence team.

TRUSCOTT: That's the legal defence team.

MANSBRIDGE: As you well know, for the Minister of Justice to grant a review of your case, there needs to be compelling new evidence. We've seen some new evidence brought out by the Fifth Estate program. Julian Shearer's new book puts new evidence on the table. For you, what is the most compelling piece of new evidence that shows you are innocent?

TRUSCOTT: I think everything combined. There was things that started the trial. There was evidence that was never given to my lawyers. There was evidence that wasn't given at the appeal or the Supreme Court. And there's an awful lot of evidence that was more or less put under the table, I guess with the idea that we would never see it. And AIDWYC finally has probably about 90 or 95 percent of the information now. And I think it is very powerful.

MANSBRIDGE: So no one piece of evidence but all of it combined.

TRUSCOTT: I think all of it combined, yes.

MANSBRIDGE: You know, when you decided to go public with this, after all those years of remaining so private, is it difficult for you? What's it been like?

TRUSCOTT: It's very difficult because I've never been a public person. It was something that the whole family discussed as a family. And my kids had branched out and had their own families and we thought as a group, it's time to get every bit of evidence that we could. I had heard about AIDWYC helping on a couple of the other cases with DNA. So I approached them and asked them if they would look into it to see if there was DNA.

MANSBRIDGE: When you had that family discussion, was there any doubt by your other family members that...

TRUSCOTT: No.

MANSBRIDGE: ...you should go public again, make another attempt?

TRUSCOTT: We didn't know exactly what it would be going public. Most of the people in the town that we lived in know, knew who we were. And...

The National, Nov. 28, 2001

MANSBRIDGE: They already knew?

TRUSCOTT: Most of them did.

MANSBRIDGE: Even though you were using a different name at the time?

TRUSCOTT: Yes. Yes. So it didn't come to a shock to any of them. It was mainly outside of the town that we were in. And that's taken quite a, quite a bit of used, getting used to.

MANSBRIDGE: How did it feel when you started using Steven Truscott again as your name?

TRUSCOTT: Legally my name has always been Steven Truscott. But we had to use the assumed name when I got out of prison. And it was a name that I was familiar with. So that part wasn't that difficult. But it's not the name I was born with. And it's not the name that my kids were born with. And I figure we have that right to bear my father's name.

MANSBRIDGE: Your son started using Truscott as well.

TRUSCOTT: Yes.

MANSBRIDGE: When you started reusing it.

TRUSCOTT: Yes.

MANSBRIDGE: How was that?

TRUSCOTT: He found it difficult at first. He had spent about 25 years under the assumed name. So he found it a little bit difficult at first, but he's used to it now.

MANSBRIDGE: We watched Linden MacIntyre, the reporter who first brought your story back into the national limelight again just a little over a year ago, saying that this was your last chance in your lifetime, this review of the case. Is that the way you feel too?

TRUSCOTT: I would say definitely. I think every other avenues has been exhausted. And I think is the first time in 42 years that all this information is available to the Justice Department or the Justice Minister. It's always been in the Justice Department that nobody has ever looked at it before. So, it's finally compiled together. I think AIDWYC has done a fantastic job on it. And I'm just hoping that the Justice Minister will do an honest job on it.

MANSBRIDGE: Are you optimistic?

TRUSCOTT: Yes. Yes. I think the Justice Department has changed a lot since I was in their system. And I think people are more open. So I think they'll do the right thing.

MANSBRIDGE: Whatever they do, how will your life change?

TRUSCOTT: I don't think my life will really change anymore. I would get my name back. Other than that, I mean that's one thing that I have left is to get my name back and for them to admit there was a wrongful conviction.

MANSBRIDGE: Steven Truscott, I think the whole country will be fascinated and watching as this unfolds. We thank you for your time tonight.

TRUSCOTT: Thank you very much, Peter.

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Interviewer: Peter Mansbridge Original Airdate: November 28, 2001 His story, many people claim, led to the end of capital punishment in Canada. After serving 10 years in prison, Steven Truscott moved to a small community in Ontario where he remained anonymous and silent about his controversial arrest, trial and conviction.

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In July 2008,  Steven Truscott was rewarded a $6.5 Million dollar compensation  for his wrongful conviction. The attorney General also announced that his wife, Marline be given 100,000. After being compensated Truscott's family stating " Although we are grateful for the freedom and stability that this award will provide, we are also painfully aware that no amount of money will truly compensate Steven for the terror to being sentenced to hang at the age of 14"

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Steven Truscott's $6.5 Million Award for Wrongful Conviction

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https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/steven-truscott-case

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/lynne-harpers-family-speaks-out-on-truscott/article20401083/

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/5156074--viable-suspect-explored-in-murder-that-saw-steven-truscott-wrongfully-convicted/

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Contributing Factors In Wrongful Conviction

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Contributing Factors In Wrongful Conviction

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When it comes to the Steven Truscott case I do believe that there are many factors in which contributed to Truscotts wrongful conviction.
1. The prosecutors were eager to convict someone so bad, that they let emotions cloud their professional judgement. This is identified as " Tunnel Vision"

2. Another factor that lead to a wrongful conviction was false witness testimony

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Having the opportunity to do my assignment on the Steven Truscott case, I have realized how easily the Canadian justice system could be played and influenced. Every wrongfully convicted person should be a learning experience for the justice system therefore they should find ways to improve so that wrongful convictions don't happen so often. When trying to prove case, all persons should be questioned until they are 100% sure that they have the right person. I also do think that all witnesses should be question 2 times max to make sure their testimony is always the same as their last one