First Televised Ontario Court Case Promises To Be Blockbuster
Posted January 30, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
When the Attorney General announced earlier this month that Ontario would be bringing cameras to the Court of Appeal for the first time in history, few realized that the debut case would be a blockbuster.
Beginning Wednesday, court watchers across the province will be able to see the appeal of Steven Truscott, as he tries yet again to clear his name.
His story is amongst the oldest and most famous in Canadian jurisprudence.
It stretches all the way back to June 1954, when a 12-year-old girl named Lynne Harper was found raped and strangled on a farm near Clinton, Ontario.
Truscott, then just 14, was the last person seen with the young girl and despite some questionable evidence, police charged him with the terrible crime. He would be convicted and become the youngest person ever sentenced to die in Canada.
The penalty would later be commuted and Truscott was quietly released from prison in 1969, disappearing into obscurity under an assumed name, but always maintaining his innocence.
He reappeared in March 2000, giving up his new life for a chance to finally seek ultimate vindication. The Court of Appeal will now decide if that will happen and whether questions surrounding one of the most controversial cases in this country’s history will be permanently resolved.
That’s the background that court watchers will see when the gavel bangs down on Wednesday.
For veteran journalists of justice, it’s an amazing case and an amazing event.
“The Court of Appeal will be hearing extensive legal arguments and will decide at the end of it all should Steven Truscott be found not guilty of a murder he has said he has never committed, should he have a new trial or maybe the appeal should be dismissed and it is going to be very, very interesting,” suggests Court TV host and lawyer Lorne Honickman.
“Some of the most experienced lawyers in this country will be arguing in front of some of the most experienced judges, and it will be very, very interesting and very informative and very important for all Canadians to watch.”
You can do just that when coverage of the case unfolds live starting at 9am on CP24 and Court TV Canada.
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