"Until you
are Dead"
by Julian Sher
HARDCOVER PAPERBACK
"Until You Are Dead": Steven
Truscott's Long Ride into History
by Julian Sher
Now available in paperback
"Until
You Are Dead" chronicles the loss of Canada’s innocence.
Prior to June 11, 1959, Canadian parents could allow their children
to play outdoors, unsupervised, in places children traditionally
love: schoolyards, fields and nearby swimming holes. But on that
hot summer day, when the body of a twelve-year-old girl turned up
in a woody area near Clinton, Ontario, that innocence was shattered.
The girl’s name was Lynne Harper and she had been raped and murdered.
The summer was barely over before a popular schoolboy named Steven
Truscott, fourteen years old at the time, was tried, convicted and
sentenced to hang. Truscott spent ten years in prison after the
federal cabinet commuted his death sentence. He has always maintained
his innocence.
His trial in 1959 was the most famous and controversial in Canadian
history. As a producer at CBC TV’s the fifth estate, Julian Sher
spent two years investigating the Steven Truscott story for an explosive
documentary.
"Until
You Are Dead" reveals witnesses not called
upon to testify; other, more likely suspects, including a known
pedophile, never questioned; and important leads that were kept
from the defence, the judge and jurors. Boxes of police files and
military records hidden or buried in government vaults reveal astonishing
and disturbing information about an investigation and trial the
authorities always claimed was above reproach. All told, the book
uncovers a wealth of information that could have lead to a different
verdict and a very different life for the young boy who was nearly
executed over forty years ago.
In the fall of 2001, Truscott’s lawyers presented a 700-page brief
to the federal justice minister. Early in 2002, Ottawa decided to
re-open the case, naming a retired judge to investigate. The updated
paperback recounts this historic triumph.
WEB SITE RESOURCES:
HOW TO BUY THE BOOK:
> Buy the paperback book in Canada from
Chapters.ca
> Buy the paperback in the United States from Amazon.com
>Buy from other
sources and find out how to buy
other books by Julian Sher
> Read an
excerpt from the Amazon site
AWARDS
Finalist 2002 - Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
Winner 2002 - CAA Birks Family Foundation Award for Biography
REVIEW QUOTES
"Read this book. You will be jarred by the reality of our
justice system. This excellent, in-depth compilation of Steven Truscott’s
very disturbing case keeps you absorbed and in disbelief: Where
is the justice?"
- Guy Paul Morin
"Sher writes with a finely measured sense of disbelief. How
could this happen? he asks through every page. And we share his
amazement, notwithstanding David Milgaard, Donald Marshall, Guy
Paul Morin and Thomas Sophonow, all convicted until proven innocent
... Sher has written an important book. One that ought to serve
as a warning to those who administer justice against arrogance.
Nor should anyone be complacent on the issue, for every time a case
is closed with the wrongly accused, a killer is left free to roam
among us. "
- The Montreal Gazette
"The CBC television producer who earned Truscott's trust and
helped make a national case of his continued claim of innocence,
Montreal's Julian Sher, presents another compelling indictment of
our justice system."
- The Toronto Star
"There have been previous books on the trial of Steven Truscott,
but 'Until You Are Dead' ... is the most comprehensive analysis
to date."
- The Globe and Mail
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