Steven Truscott Receives $6.5M In Compensation For Wrongful Murder Conviction

For almost fifty years, Steven Truscott was saddled with a murder conviction, declared guilty in the 1959 rape and murder of his schoolmate Lynne Harper.

Just last fall he was acquitted of the crime by the Ontario Court of Appeal and was called the “victim of a miscarriage of justice.” He was not declared innocent however due to a lack of physical evidence in the case.

The court asked that reparations for his ordeal be considered, and on Monday the province’s Attorney General Chris Bentley announced that the government will pay Truscott $6.5 million in compensation. That amounts to $250,000 for every year he spent in jail and $100,000 for each year he spent on parole. 

“We are doing what we can to bring to an end this remarkable aspect of Mr. Truscott’s life’s journey,” Bentley said.

Truscott was the last person seen with the 12-year-old Harper, and he was convicted of killing her a short time later. Although he maintained his innocence, saying he’d left her alive and well, he was sentenced to hang for the crime. At 14, he was the youngest person ever to be handed the death penalty.

After ten years in jail, he was released on parole.

Monday’s announcement marks the end of a long and emotional saga for both Truscott, now 63, and his wife Marlene, who was also granted compensation in the amount of $100,000. 

The couple says that although they’re happy to have the financial security, nothing can undo the “terror” of being sentenced to hang.

“This is the final and long-awaited step in recognizing Steve’s innocence,” they said.

“We are also painfully aware that no amount of money could ever truly compensate Steven for the terror of being sentenced to hang at the age of 14, the loss of his youth, or the stigma of living for almost 50 years as a convicted murderer.”

The Truscotts added that their wish now is to live the rest of their lives in “peace and tranquility.”

Key events in the Steven Truscott case:

1959

June 9: 12-year-old Lynne Harper goes missing after taking a walk near the Lake Huron community of Clinton, Ont.

June 11: Harper’s body is found on a farm and evidence suggests she had been raped and strangled. Steven Truscott, 14, a classmate, was the last person seen with the victim.

June 12: Truscott admits to police he was with Harper, but saw her get into a car as he rode away on a bike. Despite his claim, Truscott is arrested and charged with her murder the following day.

Dec. 8: After a 15-day trial, a jury finds Truscott guilty of the murder and sentences him to death by hanging.

1960

The Conservative government under then prime minister John Diefenbaker commutes Truscott’s sentence to life in prison.

1966

Journalist Isabel LeBourdais publishes a book called “The Trial of Steven Truscott” which raises questions about his case. It prompts the Supreme Court to re-examine the issue, but the justices vote 8-1 against giving Truscott a new trial.

1969

Ten years into his life sentence, Truscott is released from jail, but disappears into obscurity in Guelph, Ont. He marries and has three children, and remains out of the public eye for the next 20 years.

1997

Truscott agrees to the same type of DNA testing that exonerated Guy Paul Morin and David Milgaard of murder. But crucial evidence that may have helped clear him had been destroyed.

James Lockyer agrees to represent Truscott — the same lawyer who helped overturn the wrongful conviction of Morin for the death of Christine Jessop in 1984.

2000

Truscott emerges from hiding and says he will do everything in his power to clear his name.

2001

Lawyers for the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted file an appeal to have Truscott’s case reopened.

2002

Retired Quebec Justice Fred Kaufman is appointed by the federal government to review the case.

2004

Kaufman’s report goes to the justice minister. But its conclusions aren’t made public. Then federal justice minister Irwin Cotler sends the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal to consider if new evidence would have changed the outcome of the original trial.

2005

The Kaufman report is made public and it suggests there was a miscarriage of justice but there is not enough evidence to exonerate Truscott.

2006

After more than four decades, the body of Lynne Harper is exhumed. But no useable DNA is found on her remains. She is reburied four days later. Soon afterward, the Ontario Court of Appeal starts hearings in the case.

2007

August 28: The court acquits Truscott, calling his murder conviction a “miscarriage of justice.”

2008

July 7: Truscott receives $6.5 million in compensation nearly five decades after his wrongful conviction.