Nearly five decades after Steven Truscott (pic­tured) was sen­tenced to die for the mur­der of 12-year-old Lynne Harper in Clinton, Ontario, he has been acquit­ted by the Canadian province’s high­est court. Truscott, who was only 14-years-old when he was sen­tenced to hang in 1959, was on death row for four months before his sen­tence was com­mut­ed to life in prison. The case was one of the most high pro­file cas­es in Canada’s his­to­ry, and Truscott was the youngest per­son on death row. Two attempts to clear his name failed before he was grant­ed parole in 1969, just sev­en years before Canada abol­ished the death penal­ty. Though he spent decades keep­ing a low pro­file, Truscott always main­tained his inno­cence and began a new fight to clear his name in 1997. In the final chap­ter of that effort, the Ontario Court of Appeals unan­i­mous­ly ruled that new evi­dence in the case proved that Truscott’s con­vic­tion was a ​“mis­car­riage of jus­tice,” and Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant apol­o­gized to Truscott as he announced the province has no inten­tion of appeal­ing the high court’s deci­sion. Truscott told reporters, ​“I nev­er in my wildest dreams expect­ed in my life­time for this to come true, so it’s a dream come true.”

(CBC News, August 28, 2007). See Innocence.

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