Court of Criminal Appeal reject Luke Mitchell’s request to take his case to UK Supreme Court, convicted without a scrap of evidence against him!

Dear All

Do you remember the slogan by the Tories, ‘Labour’s not working’?

They accompanied that slogan with a picture of a long line of people standing queuing to get a job.

In Scotland, we have now a bizarre situation at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.

That isn’t working either.

To be exact, they are working but they keep coming up with the wrong decisions.

Luke Mitchell was convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Jodi Jones in Dalkeith, Midlothian in 2005.

And he has always, always claimed he is innocent.

We are now in 2011.

Some people believe his trial was a travesty and that he is innocent, even within my own party, the SNP.

Why do people have this belief?

His DNA was not at the crime scene.

There is no forensic evidence linking him to the scene at all.

And other males whose DNA was inconveniently close to the corpse were never arrested or even questioned as suspects.

This is despite their attempts to alter their appearance, and the ever-changing stories, they have put forward.

So, lets step back to April 2004 Luke Mitchell was charged with murder.

In the absence of any DNA evidence linking Mitchell to the scene, the prosecution case was wholly circumstantial.

A witness said she had seen Mitchell but at the trial she failed to pick him out in the courtroom.

The case also centred on Mitchell’s character, his supposedly unemotional reaction to Jodi’s death and that he carried knives; sold cannabis and was interested in satanism.

In the Jo Yeates case, the press targeted the landlord of Jo Yeates on the basis that he was a weirdo and had a bad haircut.

He was subsequently found to have had nothing to do with the killing.

The real murderer was Vincent Tabak who lived next door to her. He has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

13 days before Tabak arrest I blogged the solution to the case lay at the building she lived in.

George Laird was right again.

Here is a link to the Luke Mitchell website.

http://caseblog.wronglyaccusedperson.org.uk/luke-mitchell-is-innocent/

Take the time and have a read.

Having read, I believe that it was wholly wrong of the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh not to send this case to the UK Supreme Court.

Luke Mitchell has sought permission from senior judges in Scotland to take his appeal to the Supreme Court, they have refused.

This in my opinion is another mistake by them in a growing catalogue of errors of judgment.

There has been a lot of criticism of the UK Supreme Court over two decisions in the Peter Cadder and Nat Fraser cases.

A lot of emotional talk has been flung about regarding the ‘threat’ to the independence of the Scottish legal system.

There is no threat to that independence rather the real threat is exposing the corruption that has previously been buried.

The real problem is the way that justice is being run in Scotland which isn’t human rights compliant.

Luke Mitchell argues that aspects of his trial were unfair and breached his human rights; he is now expected to appeal directly to the Supreme Court to hear his case.

That case should be heard.

Luke Mitchell was convicted without a scrap of evidence against him.

I am starting to ask myself, what exactly is going on the Justice portfolio.

At present there is a review set up by the Scottish Government, a possible solution is that Scotland needs its own stand alone Scottish Supreme Court.

The creation of that institution is essential but more than this, we need better judges, hand picked for their expertise and understanding of human rights.

Also we also need to remove certain people from justice.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University