HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2007-02-07, Page 15Page 14 The Huron Expositor • February 7, 2007
News
Changing stories of key witnesses cited in defence
Steven Truscott's chief lawyer,
- Thursday, asked the Ontario Court
of Appeal to quash his client's con-
viction for the murder of Lynne
Harper on day two of the appeal.
Quoting recent British decisions
that overturned old murder convic-
tions, James Lockyer also asked five
appeal justices to conclude Truscott
"was wrongfully convicted."
On the second day of Truscott's
landmark, televised appeal, Lockyer
said his client, whose death sen-
tence was commuted several
months after the jury convicted
him, "did not get a fair trial."
Imprisoned at 14, Truscott's con-
viction was upheld by the Supreme
Court of Canada in 1966, three
years before he was released and
moved to Guelph as Steven Bowers.
After discovering undisclosed evi-
dence tucked away in government
files, Lockyer said his client went
public in 2000 to clear his name. In
2004, the federal justice minister
concluded there had been a miscar-
riage of justice.
Lockyer produced several original
prosecution briefs and summaries of
witness statements his team found
in the Ontario Archives and Crown
files in Goderich, where the trial
was held in 1959, three months
after the girl's rape and murder.
Several statements were not pro-
duced for Truscott's trial lawyer or
for the Supreme Court review,
Lockyer said.
He is challenging Crown claims
that more restrictive court stan-
dards at the time were met in 1959
and 1966.
"It's the state's fault that this
material was not available," he said,
citing less -adversarial proceedings
that were conducted in a "most gen-
tlemanly fashion."
But Justices David Doherty and
Michael Moldaver questioned if
they can judge by today's proceed-
ings that the 1959 trial was proper.
"Prior to 1896, an accused could
not testify," Doherty said, asking if
all trials 111 years ago could now be
judged to have been unfair.
Claiming much of the original
case was based on "circumstantial
evidence," Lockyer urged them to
weigh the potential of the withheld
information and "not to be strait-
jacketed by due diligence ... or
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Marlene and Steven Truscott enter Osgoode Hall for the
appeal of his 48 -year -old murder
straitjacketed by rules of evidence.”
Information not disclosed to the
defence could have cast doubt on
four witnesses who Lockyer claimed
altered their key statements about
when they did or did not see Harper
and Truscott together, between
their preliminary hearing and trial
testimony.
He said the original lawyer, now
Mr. Justice John O'Driscoll of the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice,
was caught in a "Catch-22 situa-
tion," believing prosecutors would
disclose all statements and a list of
all witnesses.
Day 3
Two key Crown witnesses at
Steven Truscott's 1959 trial not only
lied then, but to a judge whose 2002
review led to the current appeal
hearing, the court heard on Friday.
Defence lawyer Philip Campbell
told the Ontario Court of Appeal his
client's first counsel was left
"whistling in the wind" by Arnold
George admitting he changed his
story — which first helped his pal
Truscott — after Lynne Harper's
body was found.
In two early statements to police
in 1959, the 13 -year-old said he saw
Truscott and Lynne heading
towards a highway the night she
vanished near a former Royal
Canadian Air Force Base, now
known as the community of
Vanastra.
At the murder trial, Campbell
said George became a damning wit-
ness by claiming not only had he
not seen the pair there, but was also
conviction.
tart of a Truscott
conspiracy to get
friends to lie for
him to give him
an alibi.
His lawyer
said Crown -pros-
ecutor Glenn
Hayes empha-
sized to jurors
that George was
credible because
he admitted, out
of a feeling of
guilt and under
oath while testi-
fying in court,
that he regretted
lying earlier to
police.
Without
knowing the
young witness
gave completely
different stories
to police,
Truscott's lawyer,
the late Frank
Donnelly — who
was later
appointed as an
Ontario Supreme
Court justice —
had no grounds
to undermine testimony of the "cru-
cial witness," Campbell said.
As a consequence, says Campbell,
Truscott was convicted.
Much of the appeal hinges on the
defence convincing five justices that
his defence teams in 1959 and at a
failed Supreme Court of Canada
appeal hearing in 1966 did not
know of several alternate witness
statements to police.
Campbell added that, at a 2002
investigative inquiry, George stuck
to his old testimony of not seeing
Truscott but added a new, damaging
claim to have seen his friend's "very
visible" green bicycle parked by a
woods where Harper was found
dead.
The now -adult witness also told
inquiry's Justice Fred Kaufman five
years ago that he and many of the
others who claimed to have seen
Lynne with Truscott were kids and
not necessarily to be believed, the
lawyer added.
Kaufman decided George was
untrus'tworthy at the time of the
review.
Truscott lawyer Marlys Edwardh
also asked that 1959 testimony by
Jocelyn Gaudet, 13, be discarded
since her original story to the OPP
about seeking Lynne, not Truscott
as she later testified, was never dis-
closed at trial.
Quoting testimony to Kaufman
five years • ago, Edwardh said
Gaudet vowed never to reveal the
"deep, dark secret" about the truth
of her search that night.
By Ian Robertson