Essay On Steven Truscott

With the controversy in Truscott's case that had helped spur the country to abolish the capital punishment in 1976 was starting to become bigger than it already was because people were starting to come together in the fight to help the wrongful convicted. This included a group of Lawyers in the association in Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted, who works together to establish the innocence of wrongfully convicted individuals, who were wanting to assist on a new trial to prove the innocence of Steven Truscott. In March 2000, after decades of staying quiet, he went public for the first time to publicly proclaim his innocence in a documentary broadcast on the CBC's The Fifth Estate which unveiled new evidence on the investigation of Harper's

Later in January 2002, the Justice minster appointed a former Quebec judge, Fred Kaufman, to assess the case which he later reported that there was a miscarriage of justice in Steven's case but there wasn't enough new evidence to exonerate him. On October 28th 2004, the Federal Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, referred the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal for review saying there was reasonable basis to conclude a miscarriage of justice occurred in this case. Witnesses also kept altering their stories at trial from the original trial to the new trial giving the prosecution ammunition. Steven gave his case to the Ontario Court of Appeal on January 31st, 2007 which helped overturn his conviction 8 months later on August 28th, 2007, declaring the case a miscarriage of justice. However, the judges go on to say that "the court is not satisfied that the appellant has been able to demonstrate his factual innocence." Michael Bryant, Ontario's attorney general, tells reporters the Crown has no plans to appeal and offers Truscott an apology. July 7, 2008: The Ontario government announces it will pay Truscott $6.5 million in compensation for his ordeal. "We are doing what we can to bring to the conclusion this remarkable aspect of Mr. Truscott's life's journey," Chris Bentley, Ontario's attorney general, says during the announcement. The conviction was unanimously affirmed by the Court of