EXPOSER OF MULTIPLE CANADIAN INJUSTICES HONOURED

Lawyer James Lockyer is slated to receive an honorary degree Monday from the province's legal regulatory body in the city that sparked his passion for defending the wrongly convicted. "On July 30, 1992, there was a conviction in your city which I took on and it just went from there," Lockyer said in a interview discussing his honorary doctorate, which he will receive from the Law Society of Upper Canada during the Call to the Bar ceremony at the London Convention Centre.

Guy Paul Morin was convicted in London of murdering nine-year-old Christine Jessop near Queensville outside of Toronto in 1984. More than two years later, with Lockyer as his lawyer, Morin was exonerated after DNA tests excluded him as a the killer.

Since then, Lockyer, a founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, has been involved in such high-profile cases as David Milgaard, Robert Baltovich, James Driskell, Clayton Johnson and Romeo Phillion. He also is involved in the case of Steven Truscott, who at 14 in 1959 was convicted and sentenced to death in Huron County for the sex slaying of 12-year-old Lynne Harper. The Guelph millwright is waiting with Lockyer for his court date before the Ontario Court of Appeal.

More here


Brief review of the Truscott case: Typical police arrogance at work

THE POLICE INVESTIGATION: It took the police only 24 hours after Lynn Harper's body was found to arrest Steven Truscott. No other suspects were seriously investigated. The police records indicate that there was no attempt to check police records or military records for known sex offenders.

TIME OF DEATH: If there was one thing that convinced the jury of Steven Truscott's guilt, it was the medical evidence. The medical doctors who testified for the prosecution spoke with a certitude that left no room for doubt in the minds of the jury, testifying with inspired confidence that Lynn Harper had died during the half-hour or so that she'd been with Steven Truscott. But the fifth estate uncovered evidence that indicated otherwise.

THE INJURIES: Doctors testified that Lynn Harper was a victim of a "blind, violent rape." The jury was undoubtedly influenced by their graphic description of the extent of her injuries. They also testified that Steven Truscott had huge lesions on his penis. But how accurate was their testimony?

JOCELYN GAUDET'S STORY: Jocelyn Gaudet, a classmate, claimed that on the day before the murder, Truscott had made a secret date to meet her in the bush ... suggesting that his teenage hormones were on the boil.The alleged date would become crucial evidence against him -- painting Truscott as boy on the prowl, desperate to lure any girl he could. But how credible was Gaudet?

GORD LOGAN: If Truscott and Lynn crossed the bridge taking Lynn north to the highway, he could not have killed her in the bush which was south of the bridge. And two witnesses insisted they saw them crossing the bridge ... riding double on his bike. One was Gordon Logan who was 12, fishing in the river. He told police he looked up and saw Steven and Lynn ride by.

Later, when it became crucial to Steven's alibi, the police said he made it up to protect his friend ... that the bridge was too far away to see anybody on it clearly. But the fifth estate discovered police records indicating the opposite.


PHILIP BURNS STORY: Of the dozen of children and adults on the county road that hot June evening, nobody could reliably place Steven in or near the bush where Lynn's body was later found. Then the police introduced some interesting reverse logic ... to prove that Steven and Lynn had gone into the bush, they only had to prove that at some point they WEREN'T on the road. Philip Burns a ten year-old boy was on the road that night and testified that he didn't meet them.


THE FOOTPRINT: The prosecution also made much of the testimony of an alleged footprint - spotted, they said, by one of the searchers, Flying Officer Glen Sage. The crown prosecutor insisted, - the evidence is clear, these were his shoes. Court testimony showed that the - marks -- not even footprints -- were never matched by the police to Truscott's shoes - or any shoes for that matter.


THE BICYCLE TRACK MARK: The prosecution claimed that bicycle tire marks found near the bush were "similar" to Steve's bike. But those marks were probably a month old. The pictures show the ground was parch dry and it had not rained in a month.

More here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)