"Until You Are Dead": The Wrongful Conviction of Steven Truscott

I devoured this book! Sad, tragic, unforgivable - a terrible piece of our Canadian history. I remember the story from my own childhood, as I am only slightly younger than Steven Truscott. But reading his tale had a huge impact on me. I am a mystery writer, writing about a character who is wrongfully convicted of murder. This book gave me the insight into the emotional scars that such an event leaves behind on absolutely everyone.

I was six years old when Lynne Harper died and Steven Truscott was sentenced to hang. At that age I had no idea what rape was, but I knew what murder was, and I simply could not connect the smiling face of the fourteen year old boy I saw in my father's newspaper with murder. Now, after reading Mr. Sher's terrific book, it makes sense. With two words Mr. Sher explained everything: frontier justice. And that's what Steven Truscott received. Back in 1959 people wanted the bad guy caught, tried and convicted as fast as possible. If the first guy they caught WAS the bad guy, great. But if not, well, he probably was. And I believe this is what happened to Steven Truscott. He was tried, convicted and sentenced so fast I really wonder if he ever had time to fully comprehend what was really happening to him. Mr. Sher also shows us how innocent and naive Canada really was in 1959. We believed everything the police and our courts told us: they never lied or made mistakes. How this boy could be convicted on what passed for evidence at this trial will forever make me shake my head. And finally, how could Canada, the true north strong and free, sentence a fourteen year old boy to HANG? Maybe Mr. Sher got it wrong: instead of frontier justice perhaps he meant "barbarian Justice". At any rate, I am extremely grateful to Mr. Sher for his meticulous work in reconstructing a time and event so that it now makes sense. An excellent work that I would recommend to any and all.

"Until You Are Dead" is a journalistic masterpeice. Julian Sher sets out to uncover the truth about one of Canada's most contraversial criminal cases. What he finds is a shocking story of haw one boy slipped through the cracks in the legal system and almost lost his life as a result. In this case, the facts arre far more astonishing, and appalling, than fiction.