Toronto ? An appeals court on Tuesday overturned a 1959 rape and murder conviction that had sentenced a then 14-year-old boy to hang – the youngest Canadian ever to face execution.

The defendant, Steven Truscott, was victimized by a “miscarriage of justice” 48 years ago when he was convicted of killing a 12-year-old classmate, Ontario’s highest court ruled.

Truscott, now 62, had long insisted on his innocence. “I never in my wildest dreams expected in my lifetime for this to come true,” he said after the ruling.

His death sentence had been quickly commuted – three months after his conviction – because Canada’s government at the time feared the country’s image would suffer if it allowed a 14-year-old to be executed. Truscott was given a life sentence and was paroled after 10 years in prison.

Truscott’s ordeal helped bring the abolishment of Canada’s death penalty in 1976 as those who favored abolishing executions cited the near hanging of a boy many people considered to be innocent.