Steven Truscott’s Long Journey To Justice: “It Is A Dream Come True”
Posted August 28, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was a moment Stephen Truscott had literally waited his whole life for. He was just 14 when the existence most teenagers know as normal came to a sudden and horrifying end. Truscott had been arrested for the murder of a school classmate, a crime he knew he didn’t commit. The nightmare that followed was like something out of a Kafka novel. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in a trial that only lasted 15 days – all before he was legally old enough to drive, buy a package of cigarettes or fight for his country.
The conviction of Truscott in the murder of Lynne Harper back in 1959 has been a cause celebre ever since. And on Tuesday, the man found guilty of the brutal rape and murder heard the words he’s been waiting for during a long 48 year battle to regain his good name. The Ontario Court of Appeal officially acquitted Truscott of the crime, without actually declaring his outright innocence.
It was a new moment frozen in time, one that would not wipe out old grievances and hurts, but a chance to savour something the now 62-year-old had been needing to hear for almost 50 years. It was also the first time reporters can recall ever seeing something else on his often grim visage – a broad smile.
Clearly savouring the taste, Truscott finally got the chance to speak as a truly free man. He began by thanking his lawyers and his family, who always stood by him, and recalls first hearing the news while driving in the car with this attorney, James Lockyer. “For 48 years, I was considered guilty,” he remembers. “I knew myself and my family knows that I never was. So just to hear the decision and — I never in my wildest dreams expected in my lifetime for this to come true. So it is a dream come true.
“I was prepared for the worst,” he adds. “Which has happened every time in the past. So, yeah, it took a few miles for it to kind of sink in.”
While the court acquitted Truscott, it failed to declare his outright innocence. But he refuses to let that stand in the way of his victory. “I am disappointed that somebody considers this hasn’t cleared me,” he responds. “As far as I am concerned, I am cleared. So what I woke up this morning is different now. So it takes a while to have that sink in.”
And as for Attorney General Michael Bryant’s statement on the case? “I know he apologized on behalf of the government. But I don’t really feel that the apology was sincere.”
But Truscott refuses to live in the past and let his experience make him bitter. “I have learned the only way to survive is you move on,” he points out. “And my family and I have moved on. I have grandchildren. And, hey, we’re doing pretty good.” His daughter is married and has a new name. But his sons have changed their surnames back to Truscott. “The government took mine away,” he notes ruefully. “They can give it back.”
Truscott contends he wasn’t fighting the battle only for himself but for all the others who were also wrongly convicted. He’s hoping they never have to go through what he did and believes they will take hope from his long awaited victory.
And his plans now as a free man? He ponders the question for a while, before responding carefully. “I guess, travel,” he muses, picking Hawaii as a possible destination. “I think probably the first thing is I will take a little holiday from the legal system.”
To see unedited video of Truscott’s reaction, click here.
Lynne Harper case likely never to be solved
See the documents submitted by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted
Canadian cases highlight those wrongly convicted
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