Catpaw - diary of an angry cat

Steven Truscott has been acquitted of the rape and murder of schoolmate Lynne Harper - crimes he was sentenced to hang for in 1959 at the age of 14.

If you are interested in the details, Google Steven Truscott and you will see a lot of activity today. After living with this for decades, Truscott finally won his court case. He was sentenced Sept. 30 1959 and set to hang Dec. 8, 1959 - the crime was committed in the summer of 1959. Swift action, not swift justice.

The trial and conviction have been cloaked in controversy since the event. The community of Clinton was divided by the crime. CFB Clinton (Canadian airforce base) was equally divided. Truscott was the son of an enlisted man, 12 year old Lynne Harper was an officer’s daughter. The divide between the classes was never more evident. Justice was denied both sides.

A known sex offender who served on the base was never questioned - although he had been picked up and charged with attempting to lure young girls into his car just weeks before Lynne Harper died.

Another known offender was also never questioned.

The entire investigation was conducted with an impressive set of blinders on.

Truscott was convicted before the trial. He was 14 and on death row. Calmer minds overruled the hasty death sentence and converted it to life. Truscott was paroled in ‘67 and lived quietly with a new name until 2000 when he reentered public life and asked to have the conviction overturned. He has steadfastly denied the crime for 47 years and wanted to reclaim his name and his past.

It has been a hard battle, but he won a partial victory - his case was found to be a miscarriage of justice thereby throwing out the conviction. But the courts stopped short of declaring him not guilty. I would have loved this, but there is no evidence left to use. No evidence, no retrial.

Poor Lynne’s body was dug up a few years back in an attempt to find DNA but there was none. She had nothing left to give. Many of the suspects and participants are now dead, and after 47 years memories are not as sharp. Many of the children who were so browbeaten by the police in 1959 may not even be sure of what really happened - eye witness testimony is shaky at the best of times.

Much has happened in the intervening years. 1959 is a lifetime away. People have moved in and out of the Clinton area, CFB Clinton is gone, closed long ago, the murder site has become some sort of a gruesome tourist spot for the ghoulish, Truscott is a father and grandfather, people involved in this, now pivotal moment in Canadian Law, moved on with their lives.

Everyone moved on except for Lynne Harper. Dead at 12, now a footnote in history, just a small grainy photo to remind us that there was no justice for her and there never will be. Her family must have suffered greatly. I often wonder about them. I hope they found peace in the past 47 years. Somehow I doubt that. To them, she will always be their little girl, captured in time at the age of 12. No career or family for her. No dreams. No future. She has no personality to all of us that watched the Truscott case unfold over the past decades. She is simply the victim.

Who were you Lynne Harper?

Stumble it!