Exonerated at last, 47 years later?

He was only 14 years old when he was convicted of the capital murder of a 12-year-old schoolmate and sentenced to hang.

Forty-seven years later, Steven Truscott may finally get the exoneration he has waited so patiently for.

Many Canadians believe he was wrongfully convicted in the death of friend Lynne Harper, yet Truscott spent 10 years in prison after his death sentence was commuted. He's been living under a shadow ever since but the case has been referred back to a provincial appeal court which begins hearing testimony today.

This story has gripped people in this country since Day 1. Earlier this year investigators even exhumed Lynne Harper's body, hoping there might be DNA evidence which could settle the issue once and for. Sadly, there was none.

In spite of that, here's hoping Steven Truscott finally gets the peace of mind he and his family have been waiting for since he was arrested and railroaded all those years ago.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...ageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

EDIT: Thread title and contents changed to reflect my faulty arithmetic -- it's been 47 years, not 46. :-\

 

And had the internet been around 46 years ago, I'm sure some knuckledragger would have chimed in with ". . . just another reason why the death penalty is a good idea. If this had been my daughter I would have killed the monster before he ever made it to trial. Burp!"

 

Old enough to have been around when this happened.

I can remember the absolute division --even between my parents--about his sentence. Hang a 14 year old?

By all accounts the policework was shoddy beyond belief and the trial was a farce.

 

This is another reason we hate Canadians.

We would never do that to a white kid in the good ol' US of A.

 

Oh, and I know there's a lot of CBC bashers but  Julian Sher's book and "Fifth Estate" documentary were both driving forces in re-opening this case back in '01.

 

What happens when someone has been wrongly imprisoned for 47 years? Do they get some kind of settlement from the state? Does everyone who is exonerated after decades in prison become an instant millionaire?

 

He wasn't jailed for 47 years. He was paroled after about 10 years of his life sentence. He just wants to be exonerated for the crime.

 

He should still be able to get a fairly large settlement out of the government. it's one thing to be parolled, another thing to have a misguided cloud of guilt hanging over yourhead foranother 37 years after being parolled.

 

From the story, it appears there really isn't any hard evidence exonerating him of the crime -- just no good evidence to convict him.