Huron Expositor, 2007-02-14, Page 12Page 12 February 14, 2007 • The Huron Expositor
News
Harper's hitchhiking never disclosed at 1966 trial
Defence relying on `manifest unfairness' of withholding information at original trial
Ian Robertson
INEMBISMIM
Lynne Harper may have been
miffed at her parents and trying to
thumb a ride to her grandmother's
home the night she vanished in
1959, an appeal court heard last
week.
But the 12-year-old's hitchhiking
habits, as related to police by sever-
al adults, were never disclosed to
Steven Truscott's murder trial
lawyer, current defence counsel
Marlys Edwardh told five justices.
Truscott testified then to last see-
ing Harper getting into a grey car
after dropping her off at a highway,
and seeing her thumb up, Edwardh
said.
The late Shirley Harper testified
her daughter was upset about being
prevented from swimming that
night, but insisted she never hitch-
hiked.
The judge in 1959, Justice Ronald
Ferguson, ruled "irrelevant"
attempts to discuss Harper's hitch-
hiking or whether she dated boys,
Edwardh said, calling the ruling a
bid to undermine her client's state-
ments.
She said it was normal then for
kids in Clinton, southeast of
Goderich, to hitch rides but rarely
tell their parents.
The implication was that "Steven
Truscott was lying," Edwardh said,
adding Ferguson instructed the jury
to find him guilty or not, based on
whether they believed his story
about leaving the girl beside a high-
way.
Harper was found raped and
strangled nearby two days later.
The
Steven Truscott is surrounded by reporters during his recent appeal.
discovery in old files of wit-
nesses having given police different
times and locations for Truscott
being with or without Harper that
night, and adults
saying she often
hitched rides,
"offers a lot more
hope," Truscott
said outside the
courtroom. "I
don't think our
side has seen
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most of it."
Back at Osgoode Hall for the first
time since his long-awaited appeal
began last Wednesday, Truscott said
he'll avoid hearing the Crown
attack his defence team's claim that
he was wrongly convicted of killing
Harper.
'Hard sitting there'
"I don't really intend to come back
for the Crown's arguments," he said.
"It's hard sitting there, knowing
what the Crown intends -- what
they've done in the past."
After work last Thursday and
Friday, Truscott was able to watch
court proceedings live on TV "about
30 minutes each day after coming
home.
"I couldn't ask for a better legal
team," he said, declining to say if he
will ask Ottawa for an apology. and
compensation if his appeal succeeds.
Several statements from kids who
told police they were swimming,
fishing or turtle -hunting and saw
the pair together were withheld
from his trial lawyer, as was a later
investigation that backed one boy's
claim he could have seen Truscott
and Harper on a bridge from where
he stood, lawyer James Lockyer
said.
He said the defence is relying on
the "manifest unfairness" of with-
holding information that might
have resulted in the jury and an
appeal panel in 1966 acquitting
Truscott due to reasonable doubt.
Prosecutors face steep climb
of claims of unfair conviction
Prosecutors faced a steep
climb last Friday when they
began attacking a "mountain"
of claims that Steven
Truscott was unfairly convict-
ed of murder in 1959.
Crown Gregory Tweney had
barely made his first steps
into an assault on six days of
defence statements when the
first of five appeal court
judges began interrupting.
The judges broke in
throughout the day, remind-
ing the provincial prosecution
team the court must weigh
the correctness of proceedings
back then with the premise of
fairness that Truscott's
lawyers now say was absent.
While admitting the trial
prosecutor relied heavily on a
"circumstantial case," and
some witnesses and their
statements were never
revealed to Truscott's lawyer
48 years ago, Tweney defend-
ed the evidence.
Tweney urged the court to
rely on an over-all picture
based on reliable testimony
plus autopsy and pathological
evidence, and not bog down
over differing statements --
some by children whose credi-
bility was dismissed before
the trial -- about the times
they saw the pair.
"The proposed fresh evi-
dence...would not have under-
mined" the case, he said, call-
ing it "not new because it was
available but not used, or
because it simply adds to the
body of evidence already
before the proceedings."
Mr. Justice Michael
Moldaver argued: "I'm not
sure you can have this both
ways.
"You come to us and say,
'Don't fuss with the particu-
lar times,— the judge said,
reminding Tweney trial pros-
ecutor, the late Glen Hays,
"made great efforts" to brand
one boy "a little liar" and
wrong about when he saw
Truscott.
The defence claims missing
statements found in the
Ontario Archives prove he
and Harper travelled up a
road, later claiming he
dropped her off to possibly
hitchhike to her grandmoth-
er's home or a nearby horse
farm.
Prosecutor Leanne Salel
said no evidence has been
presented to show the girl
planned to leave the former
air force base where she lived
with her family, until
Truscott offered her a ride on
his bike.
At the time, he told police
Harper was upset about
being barred from swimming
that evening, "but was care-
free," which Salel said rules
out "she was wanting to get
away or play truant in some
manner."
Lead prosecutor Rosella
Cornaviera said the more
than 250 items of fresh evi-
dence by the defence team
came "from a mountain." But
she said "the files are not
complete or are missing" and
many witnesses and the trial
lawyers, judge, staff and
police are dead.
By Ian Robertson