Just shy of five decades after he was sentenced to hang at the age of 14, Steven Truscott has been awarded $6.5 million in compensation for his wrongful conviction in the rape and murder of 12 year old Lynne Harper.
In June of 1959, Lynne Harper went missing in a small community in Ontario, Canada.
Her body was found two days later.
Two days after that, Steven Truscott, 14 years old, was arrested and charged with her murder. He was tried and convicted later that year. His sentence: Death by hanging. His sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1960 and he was released in 1969.
In August 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal pronounced that Truscott’s conviction had been a “miscarriage of justice” and acquitted him.
While Steven is grateful for the acknowledgment of his innocence and for the financial stability the money provides, he says the announcement is “bittersweet.” No amount of money can truly compensate for the terror he experienced, for the loss of his childhood, for the LSD treatments he was subjected to in prison, and for the decades of ignominy living as a convicted rapist and murderer.