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Steven Truscott
Steven Murray Truscott (born January 18, 1945) is a Canadian man who, at fourteen years old, was convicted and sentenced to death in September 1959 for the rape and murder of classmate Lynne Harper. Truscott had been the last known person to see her alive. He was scheduled to be hanged; however, the federal cabinet reprieved him and he was sentenced to life in prison and released on parole in 1969. Five decades later, in 2007, his conviction was overturned on the basis that key forensic evidence was weaker than had been portrayed at trial, and key evidence in favour of Truscott was concealed from his defence team. Truscott has been described as the youngest person in Canada to be sentenced to death, although Anthony Wayne Yensen was 14 years and seven months old when he was sentenced to death on January 21, 1961, two months younger than Truscott was when he was sentenced. Yensen won a new trial in May 1961 and freed at a retrial the following month after judge said the case should not have been handled in adult court.
Cheryl Lynne Harper was born to Leslie and Shirley Harper on August 31, 1946, in New Brunswick. She had one older brother, Barry Harper, who lived in Ohio, and a younger brother, Jeffrey. Her father was a school teacher before he joined the military in 1940. They relocated to the RCAF base at Clinton in July, 1957. Lynne spent time going to Sunday school, Bible class, and Girl Guides.
On June 9, 1959, Lynne—then 12 years of age—disappeared near RCAF Station Clinton, an air force base south of Clinton, Ontario in what is now Vanastra (roughly 80 kilometers north of London). Two days later, on the afternoon of June 11, searchers discovered her body in a nearby farm woodlot. Harper had been raped and had been strangled with her own blouse.
Steven Truscott and Harper had been classmates in a combined grades 7/8 class at the Air Vice Marshal Hugh Campbell School located on the north side of the Air Force base. In the early evening of Tuesday, June 9, 1959, Truscott had given Harper a ride on the crossbar of his bicycle and proceeded from the vicinity of the school northwards along the County Road. The timing and duration of their encounter, and what happened while they were together, have been contentious issues since 1959.
In court, the Crown contended that Truscott and Harper left the County Road before reaching the bridge over the Bayfield River and, in a wooded area beside the County Road (known as Lawson's Bush), Truscott raped and murdered Lynne. Truscott has maintained since 1959 that he took Harper to the intersection of the County Road and Highway 8, where he left her unharmed. Truscott maintains that when he arrived at the bridge, he looked back toward the intersection where he had dropped Harper off and observed that a vehicle had stopped and that she was in the process of entering it. On June 10, 1959 at 9:30 a.m. Steven was interviewed by (Constable) Hobbs in a cruiser at his school. He told Hobbs that while standing on the bridge, he saw Lynne get into a "late model Chevrolet" and there "was a lot of chrome on the car and it could have been a Bellair [sic] version." At 11:20 that evening, Lynne's father reported her missing. Truscott would later in his life after serving a multitude of years in prison (after his sentence was changed from the death penalty to life in prison) attempt to disprove his involvement in the rape and murder of Lynne. Truscott has now been cleared and was provided $6.5 million dollars in reparations.
On June 12, shortly after 7:00 p.m., Truscott was taken into custody. At about 2:30 a.m. on June 13, he was charged with murder under the provisions of the Juvenile Delinquents Act. On June 30, Truscott was ordered to be tried as an adult; an appeal on that order was dismissed.
On September 16, Truscott's trial began in the then Supreme Court of Ontario in Goderich before Mr. Justice Ferguson and a jury. Steven Truscott was represented by Frank Donnelly; Glen Hays appeared for the Crown. All the evidence presented in court against the accused was circumstantial, and centred on placing Harper's death within a narrow time frame which implicated Truscott. Key to this narrow window was the autopsy doctor's testimony that the decomposition of Lynne's body and the state of partially digested food in her stomach indicated she had died near the precise time she was acknowledged to have been with Truscott. On September 30, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation for mercy. Justice Ferguson then sentenced Truscott to death by hanging.
On January 21, 1960, Truscott's appeal, put forth by John G. J. O'Driscoll to the Court of Appeal for Ontario was dismissed. Immediately afterwards, the Government of Canada commuted Truscott's sentence to life imprisonment. An application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied on February 24. On that date, Truscott did not have an automatic right to appeal to this court.
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Steven Truscott
Steven Murray Truscott (born January 18, 1945) is a Canadian man who, at fourteen years old, was convicted and sentenced to death in September 1959 for the rape and murder of classmate Lynne Harper. Truscott had been the last known person to see her alive. He was scheduled to be hanged; however, the federal cabinet reprieved him and he was sentenced to life in prison and released on parole in 1969. Five decades later, in 2007, his conviction was overturned on the basis that key forensic evidence was weaker than had been portrayed at trial, and key evidence in favour of Truscott was concealed from his defence team. Truscott has been described as the youngest person in Canada to be sentenced to death, although Anthony Wayne Yensen was 14 years and seven months old when he was sentenced to death on January 21, 1961, two months younger than Truscott was when he was sentenced. Yensen won a new trial in May 1961 and freed at a retrial the following month after judge said the case should not have been handled in adult court.
Cheryl Lynne Harper was born to Leslie and Shirley Harper on August 31, 1946, in New Brunswick. She had one older brother, Barry Harper, who lived in Ohio, and a younger brother, Jeffrey. Her father was a school teacher before he joined the military in 1940. They relocated to the RCAF base at Clinton in July, 1957. Lynne spent time going to Sunday school, Bible class, and Girl Guides.
On June 9, 1959, Lynne—then 12 years of age—disappeared near RCAF Station Clinton, an air force base south of Clinton, Ontario in what is now Vanastra (roughly 80 kilometers north of London). Two days later, on the afternoon of June 11, searchers discovered her body in a nearby farm woodlot. Harper had been raped and had been strangled with her own blouse.
Steven Truscott and Harper had been classmates in a combined grades 7/8 class at the Air Vice Marshal Hugh Campbell School located on the north side of the Air Force base. In the early evening of Tuesday, June 9, 1959, Truscott had given Harper a ride on the crossbar of his bicycle and proceeded from the vicinity of the school northwards along the County Road. The timing and duration of their encounter, and what happened while they were together, have been contentious issues since 1959.
In court, the Crown contended that Truscott and Harper left the County Road before reaching the bridge over the Bayfield River and, in a wooded area beside the County Road (known as Lawson's Bush), Truscott raped and murdered Lynne. Truscott has maintained since 1959 that he took Harper to the intersection of the County Road and Highway 8, where he left her unharmed. Truscott maintains that when he arrived at the bridge, he looked back toward the intersection where he had dropped Harper off and observed that a vehicle had stopped and that she was in the process of entering it. On June 10, 1959 at 9:30 a.m. Steven was interviewed by (Constable) Hobbs in a cruiser at his school. He told Hobbs that while standing on the bridge, he saw Lynne get into a "late model Chevrolet" and there "was a lot of chrome on the car and it could have been a Bellair [sic] version." At 11:20 that evening, Lynne's father reported her missing. Truscott would later in his life after serving a multitude of years in prison (after his sentence was changed from the death penalty to life in prison) attempt to disprove his involvement in the rape and murder of Lynne. Truscott has now been cleared and was provided $6.5 million dollars in reparations.
On June 12, shortly after 7:00 p.m., Truscott was taken into custody. At about 2:30 a.m. on June 13, he was charged with murder under the provisions of the Juvenile Delinquents Act. On June 30, Truscott was ordered to be tried as an adult; an appeal on that order was dismissed.
On September 16, Truscott's trial began in the then Supreme Court of Ontario in Goderich before Mr. Justice Ferguson and a jury. Steven Truscott was represented by Frank Donnelly; Glen Hays appeared for the Crown. All the evidence presented in court against the accused was circumstantial, and centred on placing Harper's death within a narrow time frame which implicated Truscott. Key to this narrow window was the autopsy doctor's testimony that the decomposition of Lynne's body and the state of partially digested food in her stomach indicated she had died near the precise time she was acknowledged to have been with Truscott. On September 30, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation for mercy. Justice Ferguson then sentenced Truscott to death by hanging.
On January 21, 1960, Truscott's appeal, put forth by John G. J. O'Driscoll to the Court of Appeal for Ontario was dismissed. Immediately afterwards, the Government of Canada commuted Truscott's sentence to life imprisonment. An application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied on February 24. On that date, Truscott did not have an automatic right to appeal to this court.