For the first time in 48 years, Steven Truscott woke up a free man Wednesday morning, acquitted of murdering his 12-year-old schoolmate.

Though a great weight was lifted off the backs of his family, one question still looms ahead -- how will the Truscotts be compensated?

At a news conference held Tuesday after a court acquitted him of the charges, Truscott told reporters he never considered compensation. His lawyer, James Lockyer, said Truscott deserves every penny he gets.

"Think of the damage done to him -- the loss of his childhood, and living under this awful shadow for so many years," he said.

On Wednesday, Lockyer told CTV's Canada AM that Truscott being sentenced to death by hanging at his young age of 14 was traumatizing.

"Three-and-a-half months on death row in this little death cell, as they called it, in the Goderich County jail," he said. "At one point, they were doing some renovations to the jail (but) he thought they were building the scaffold. Just horrible to think of, just horrible."

Truscott stayed in jail for ten years before being released on parole.

Truscott's age is one of the factors that make the case so unique. But Canada has had several other cases to consider as precedent, where convictions have been overturned with hefty compensations.

  • David Milgaard spent 23 years in prison after being wrongly convicted for the rape and stabbing death of Gail Miller. He was awarded $10 million.
  • Donald Marshall spent 11 years in prison after being wrongly convicted in the murder of Sandy Seale. He was acquitted in 1983 and received $1.5 million.
  • Guy Paul Morin was tried twice for the murder of 9-year-old Christine Jessop. He was convicted in 1992 and spent 18 months in jail before being exonerated through DNA. He received $1.2 million in damages
  • James Driskell spent 12 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of murdering his business partner. Manitoba granted him $250,000 as an act of goodwill as discussions around compensation continue.

Though the court concluded that Truscott's conviction was a "miscarriage of justice," they fell short of declaring him factually innocent. Lockyer said without DNA evidence available to clear him once and for all, the declaration of complete innocence is impossible.

Scott Tracey, a Guelph Mercury reporter invited to spend the day with the Truscotts yesterday said he couldn't have asked for more than the acquittal.

"We know the lawyers asked for the declaration of innocence. I think Steven realizes that had this trial been held with all of the evidence available back in 1959, this is indeed the outcome that he would have wanted back then," he told Canada AM Wednesday. "It's taken 48 years but he's finally achieved the outcome that he deserves."