"I believe he's definitely guilty," he said. "I believe that the media and the people on his defence team have put a spin on this thing that he was a young - a young boy that was very innocent, but in reality he was - he was a tough kid."**********
RELATED: Read the actual judgement
"The task of demonstrating innocence is particularly difficult in this case where in addition to the passage of almost a half-century since the crime, certain immutable facts cast some suspicion on the appellant."Which leaves the question of compensation.
"He was the last known person to see the victim alive and was with her at a location very close to where she was murdered."
"At this time, and on the totality of the record, we are in no position to make a declaration of innocence. Indeed, we are not satisfied that an acquittal would be the only reasonable verdict."
Former Appeal Court Justice Sydney Robins, tasked by the Ontario government with reviewing the compensation issue, said he must first decide whether Truscott is entitled to an award before recommending how much, if any.Lynn Harper's father also has an opinion.
"The issue turns on the fact that there was no explicit finding of factual innocence in the case,'' Robins said in a telephone interview.
“You never want to see someone who was innocent convicted of something,” the elder Mr. Harper said Wednesday. “But this is about money.”**********
The Harpers have long felt that part of Mr. Truscott's motive in continuing the efforts to clear his name has been to win a hefty compensation package from the government.
On Tuesday, Mr. Truscott's lawyer, James Lockyer, said his client should “get every penny he can out of the government after what he has been through.”
LAST WORD: The gold standard of innocence...
Is when, say... they actually catch the guy who did it.
In 1997, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno expressed regret over the leak regarding Jewell. "I'm very sorry it happened," she told reporters. "I think we owe him an apology."
Eventually, the bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta area and in Birmingham, Alabama.
Technorati Tags: Steven Truscott, Richard Jewell, Eric Rudolph
