With the assistance of the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted, Steven Truscott’s conviction was overturned on Aug. 28, 2007, after he had been charged and convicted in the murder of Lynn Harper in June 1959. In total, his original trial lasted 10 days and resulted in a conviction and a sentence that this 14-year old boy be “…hanged by the neck until dead.”

Eventually, the sentence was commuted to life by the federal cabinet. This case was an important and controversial one that pressured the federal government to abandon capital punishment.

From the time he was charged, Truscott maintained his innocence. For a small town boy from Clinton, it’s difficult to have any understanding what this event must have meant to his family. My understanding is that Truscott’s mother stayed in a trailer across from the jail in Goderich where he was originally detained. Although she has since died, she lived to hear that his conviction was overturned.

Truscott has always said that without the love and support of his family, he would have never survived the trauma of having spent 10 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. At the age of 15, Steven began his sentence at the Guelph jail. At 18, he was sent to the Collin’s Bay Prison in Kingston to serve the remainder of his sentence. He was released in October 1969.

In 1970, he was invited to Guelph by Isabel LeBourdais, the writer of The Trial of Steven Truscott, who knew that the Withers family locally had a longtime continuing interest in his case. Ultimately, he met and eventually married the love of his life, Marlene, and together they had three children. Marlene has always stated that after she read the LeBourdais book, she was outraged about how the case was handled. Forced to live in the community using his mother’s maiden name (as a condition of his parole), he lived in Guelph as a stellar citizen, and worked as a millwright at Owens-Corning. He is now retired and is a doting grandfather to his four grandchildren.

The Truscott case has become symbolic of the dangers of what may occur when the justice system fails. It also highlights the need for co-ordinated policy responses in order to ensure such miscarriages become a thing of the past. To this end, the University of Guelph is launching the Truscott Initiative in Justice Studies designed to expand knowledge and raise awareness among students at the University of Guelph, as well as the residents of Guelph.

Since meetings began with the Truscott family around this initiative, it has been made clear by Truscott that the initiative be named the Truscott Initiative in Justice Studies reflecting that this is very much about the challenges his family experienced over the years. Truscott’s older son, Ryan, has represented the family at strategic planning meetings held in the past year.

Next Friday, Nov. 6, the Truscotts will be part of a panel discussion, along with former federal justice minister Irwin Cotler, Hersh Wolsh, a member of the Truscott legal team, and Mac Steinburg, a former chaplain at the Collins Bay Penitentiary and retired senior member of the National Parole Board of Ontario. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. with the doors open at 7 p.m., in Rozanski Hall, Room 104. This event is being coordinated by the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences and marks the launch of the Truscott Initiative.

The event is open to members of the community and tickets are $20 and can be ordered online at http://www.alumni.uoguelph.ca/justice. Seating is limited.

Judith McKenzie is an associate professor in the department of political science and coordinator of the criminal justice and public policy program at the University of Guelph.