Huron Expositor, 2006-06-21, Page 9News
The Huron Expositor • June 21, 2006 Pogo 9
Court of Appeal hearing into Truscott case begins
with examination of forensic evidence
Cheryl Heath
While the contents of 12 -year-old
Lynne Harper's stomach in a 1959
autopsy lend credence to the
Crown's charge that the girl's mur-
der occurred June 9, the state of the
body's decomposition suggests the
time of death could have fallen on
June 10.
That opinion was expressed by Dr.
Michael Pollanen, Ontario's chief
forensic pathologist Monday morn-
ing during the first day' of what is
expected to be a three-week long
Ontario Court of Appeal hearing.
A five -member panel of justices is
presiding in a statelycourtroom
with wood -panelled walls reminis-
cent of the ones that surrounded a
then 14 -year-old Steven Truscott in
September 1959 when he was sen-
tenced to be hanged for the rape
and murder of his A.V.M. Hugh
Campbell classmate.
On Monday, Truscott, surrounded
by family members including wife
Marlene and sons Devon
and Ryan, sat passively
as James Lockyer, part of
the . Association in
Defence of the
Wrongfully Convicted
(AIDWYC) team fighting
to clear Truscott's name,
began the proceeding by
dissecting the findings of
Michael Pollanen,
Ontario's chief patholo-
gist.
Under questioning,
Pollanen said a number
of factors - including the
heat and humidity of the
time period - leads him to
question why the body
was not in a more
advanced state of decom-
position. He was "quite
surprised" to see them so
preserved.
On the other hand, said
Pollanen, Harper's stom-
ach contents point to a
time of death that is con-
sistent with what . the
original pathologist, Dr.
John Penistan, put forth.
Pollanen, who referred
to a chart depicting liver
and kidney tissue sec-
tions taken from a
recently deceased person
alongside samples from
Harper's body, and con-
trasted with a sample
from a section taken from
a long -deceased person,
said Harper's samples
suggest her death could
have occurred later than
June 9.
Pollanen also
reported the exhuma-
tion of Harper's body
from its Union ceme-
tery -resting place this
spring produced no
further forensic evi-
dence as it had
"skeletonized."
When Lockyer
asked whether the
pathologist's prac-
tices of 1959 - in par-
ticular Penistan's
suggested time of
death - could have
resulted in an "adver-
tent miscarriage of
justice," Pollanen countered, "I
would not summarize it that way."
He said while there are occasions
when factual errors become materi-
al, they are "rare."
Pollanen said present-day pathol-
ogists adhere to an evidence -based
approach, which is what he
Steven Truscott
employed while
reviewing three
reports penned by
Penistan.
Lockyer noted
that of the three
reports, only the
third - and final one
- suggested the time
of death was
between 7:15 p.m.
and 7:45 p.m., June
9•, which is when
Harper and
Truscott were
reportedly seen
together by several
witnesses. Those
findings weighed
heavily in Truscott's conviction.
Pollanen told Lockyer that
attempting to pinpoint an exact
time of death is "fraught with diffi-
culty."
During an examination by Crown
attorney Alex Alvaro, Pollanen
acknowledged that the bush Harper
was found in could have been .
notably cooler than the 30 degree
Celsius temperatures on record.
He also said, "you could not
exclude death on the ninth."
During a follow-up, Lockyer
quipped that it seemed Lawson's
bush was being painted as
"Lawson's forest" by the Crown.
Meanwhile, the justices lobbed a
number of questions at the patholo-
gist, some of which he acknowl-
edged could not be answered. For
instance, he noted that there was
not a recognized, standard timeline
with regard to time frames for . food
digestion.
The justices - including Chief
Justice Roy McMurtry and justices
David Doherty, Karen Weiler, Marc
Rosenberg and Michael Moldaver -
have , four options.
They include acquitting Truscott,
entering a stay of proceedings,
ordering a new trial, or dismissing
the appeal.
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