Canadian man looks to clear name 48 years later

TORONTO, Feb 1 (Reuters) A Canadian man who was sentenced to hang for murder nearly 50 years ago when he was just 14 years old, entered a Toronto courtroom for what he hopes is the final step in clearing his name in a case widely considered a miscarriage of justice.

Steven Truscott was convicted in 1959 for the strangling death of 12-year-old school friend Lynne Harper, becoming Canada's youngest death-row inmate. The sentence was commuted to life in prison, and he was quietly released after 10 years behind bars.

He has always insisted he was innocent.

Since his trial and sentence, Truscott has become a cause celebre for champions of the wrongly convicted, particularly after he emerged from seclusion in 2000. That sparked a new public campaign that prompted the Canadian government to begin re-examining the case.

In 2004, then-Justice Minister Irwin Cotler conceded Truscott was likely wrongfully convicted and referred the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal, which began hearings last year.

In a small courtroom packed with media and aired live on television -- a rarity for Canadian court hearings -- Truscott lawyer James Lockyer said he would present both new forensic evidence, and older evidence not made available to defense lawyers at Truscott's original trial and at a Supreme Court review seven years later.

''If all that material had been before the court in 1959 and or 1966 ... rather than being sentenced to death he would have been set free,'' Lockyer said.

SHOCKING CRIME Harper's death shocked the country when her body was discovered in a woods near the small southwestern Ontario town of Clinton. She had been raped and strangled.

Police suspicion immediately fell on Truscott, who said he gave Harper a ride on his bicycle shortly before she disappeared, two days before her partly clothed body was found in a wooded grove. He said he saw her get into a car after he dropped her off at the highway.

He was charged within days, and found guilty in a trial that lasted two weeks.

However, doubts about Truscott's guilt began to surface soon after, and a book published in 1966 questioning police tactics prompted then-Prime Minster Lester Pearson to order a Supreme Court review.

The court upheld the verdict, but the case bubbled back into the public's consciousness in 2000, when a CBC television documentary presented new accusations that evidence had been bypassed in the original trial.

In court yesterday, flanked by his wife, Marlene and two sons, Truscott seemed in good spirits, smiling and chatting with family and supporters.

Walking through a crowd of reporters, the soft-spoken Truscott said he has been encouraged by the groundswell of public support he has enjoyed.

''If the exoneration is there, it's all been worth it,'' he said.

Lockyer said Truscott's earlier conviction was based on ''fallacies'' that only came to light after Truscott gained access to case archives in 1998.

But the re-examination of the case has been hampered by the loss of key DNA evidence and the death of several key witness and other relevant players, including Truscott's lawyers in 1959 and 1966.

Government lawyers will argue that Truscott's past counsel could have pursued other leads, but chose not to for ''tactical'' reasons.

Both sides are expected to make submissions for about three weeks to the five-member panel, which will eventually decide whether to acquit Truscott, uphold the conviction, or order a new trial.

Reuters SBA VP0740