Introduction
14 year old Steven Truscott gave his classmate Lynne Harper a ride on his bicycle on June 9, 1959. Truscott had dropped her off before they parted ways. Lynne was reported missing later that night, and two days later, her body was found on a nearby farm. She was sexually assaulted and strangled to death. The community was horrified by what happened to this young girl and everyone was determined to find the killer. Immediately, investigators became fixated on Truscott as the prime suspect since he was the last person to see Lynne. They didn’t consider any other suspects, even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the murder. He was arrested 24 hours later, and stood trial as an adult. (Steven Truscott | Murderpedia).
The entire case was based on circumstantial evidence, and Truscott was found guilty and became the youngest person in Canada to be sentenced to death at the age of 14. The Crown’s theory was that Truscott committed the murder sometime between 7:15 and 7:45PM. The theory was supported by conflicting testimonies from child witnesses, testimony from the pathologist, Dr. John Penistan, and evidence on Truscott’s body (Harland-Logan).
Four months after his conviction, Truscott’s sentence got commuted to life in prison. After spending 10 years in prison, Truscott was paroled in 1969, where he began a new life under a new name and started a family. This never changed the fact that Truscott had lost many of the good years of his life. Throughout his whole life he maintained his innocence, but he still remained a convicted killer with the possibility that his parole would be revoked. Truscott maintained a very low profile with his family until 2001, when lawyers for the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted filed an appeal to have the case reopened, and in august of 2007, nearly 50 years later, the Ontario court of appeal