Dear All
How would you feel if a member of your
family was wrongly sent to prison due to a miscarriage of justice because
someone was a better story teller than him or her?
You would justifiably be quite upset.
Kenny MacAskill has been given the post of
Justice Minister in Scotland; he is Alex Salmond’s crony.
He is a man who is trying to outrun the
stigma of releasing Al Megrahi, one of the biggest mass murderers, responsible
for the worst terrorist atrocity in Scotland in modern times.
His tenure as Justice Minister has been an
omnishambles of epic proportions, whether, it is the re-organisation of the
Courts, limiting local justice or the incredibly embarrassing ill-judged fitba bill
or the changes made to Police Scotland ,which removed accountability, MacAskill
has fucked it all up.
Nothing but a shitty ambulance chaser!
Back to storytelling, Scottish independence
depends on many factors all coming together to paint a picture; naturally
justice is a key area.
And as MacAskill demonstrated with the UK
Supreme Court debacle, he is beyond the task.
The age-old requirement for corroborating
evidence in criminal trials could be abolished as part of changes to the
justice system.
The SNP Cabinet don’t ‘do’ Law well, human
rights are another area where they are weak, they like others mistake, ‘I want
with I am entitled to’.
Under the new Criminal Justice (Scotland)
Bill, MacAskill is also going to raise
the maximum sentence for handling knives and offensive weapons from four to
five years.
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of
crime, yes, it is clearly unimpressive work, not enough to get the Megrahi
stain out of his political soul.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said:
“I have made clear a number of times that I
believe that the requirement for corroboration should be abolished as it can
represent a barrier to justice”.
Did he?
He must have to repeat everything because
Scottish people gave up listening to him almost immediately when he took
office.
MacAskill added:
“It is an outdated rule which can deny
victims the opportunity to see those responsible for serious crimes being
brought to justice”.
He is confusing brought to Court with
conviction.
MacAskill added to his justification by
saying:
“Removing the need for corroboration
represents a move towards focusing on the quality of evidence rather than
quantity.”
That is such bullshit, clearly he has had
something prepared to parrot out, no decent lawyer worth their salt would say
this, removing corroboration doesn’t improve the quality of a person’s
evidence, it lowers the bar for the prosecution.
As expected, the Law Society of Scotland
which describes corroboration as a “fundamental principle” of the justice
system says removing it will lead to a greater risk of miscarriages of justice.
Raymond McMenamin, from the society’s
criminal law committee, said:
“We believe that removing the requirement
for corroborated evidence, without including sufficiently strong safeguards in
the Bill, could simply result in a contest between two competing statements on
oath and, as a result, bring increased risk of miscarriages of justice. The
requirement for corroborated evidence is not an antiquated, outmoded legal
notion but is a fundamental principle of our justice system”.
He added:
“It’s clear that the concerns expressed by
the society and others about juries have been recognised as the Bill proposes a
move to a weighted majority from a simple majority, but we don’t believe this
is sufficient to remove the risks created by abolishing corroboration.”
Maybe MacAskill should listen to a real
lawyer who obviously has an eye for detail such as Raymond McMenamin, could
save more embarrassment and ridicule.
Liberal Democrat MP Sir Menzies Campbell,
who practised as an advocate depute for several years in Scotland’s High Court,
also warned against the changes.
Menzies said:
“If the SNP proceed with these proposals,
it will confirm that they are not fit to have the stewardship of Scottish
criminal law.”
Menzies is absolutely right, Scotland needs
a Justice Minister not a Salmond crony, his blunders which there are many all
need fixed, and where bad law has been put on the statute books, removed, stuck
down.
Law should be based on justice not
popularism.
The former Lib Dem party leader added:
“This is populism at its worst.
Corroboration is an essential component of the presumption of innocence and a
necessary bulwark against false accusation and injustice. As the power of the
state increases, the protection of the rights of the citizen has become even
more important.”
When people realize in the cold light of
day that protections in law to safeguard them from injustice are removed, the
party responsible will crash out of power, people aren’t as stupid as the SNP
believe.
The Scottish Government hopes the change
will make it easier to convict rapists and domestic abusers.
High profile emotional cases such as rape
and domestic abuse should not be used to create bad law; this like the fitba
bill will backfire on the SNP.
The UK Supreme Court will be getting a lot
more Scottish cases.
Unique to Scots law, corroboration is a necessary
safeguard against wrongful conviction; it requires two independent pieces of
evidence for a case to be brought to court. In previous blog posts, I
highlighted that human rights cannot and should not be replaced by ‘gifts’ of
safeguards which are a sham.
In their submission to a government
consultation on the proposal, judges said:
“The Scottish courts have on many occasions
been grateful for the requirement of corroboration, which in our view provides
a major safeguard against miscarriages of justice.”
Lawyers know this is dick, and judges know
this is dick, MacAskill like a blundering idiot is still going forward.
Scots law has been under scrutiny since the
UK Supreme Court’s “Cadder ruling”, which I also blogged on, prior to the
verdict in Cadder’s favour, I said it was wrong for MacAskill to adopt the
position of the Crown, as Justice Minister he is supposed to be above it and
importantly neutral. In fact he is anything but, that is why he is so poor and
ultimately unsuitable for the role he is currently employed in.
Cadder was an open and shut case of a
miscarriage of justice; the UK Supreme Court applied the human rights law and
properly found the case against an accused man had breached his human rights.
If his human rights had been fully applied, he probably would have been
convicted, the Crown was being cute.
To put it bluntly even if the Crown
believes beyond doubt in their mind of his guilt; they still cannot bend the
rules or deny him his human rights; otherwise the whole justice system is
compromised and corrupted.
Sources apparently say the government
recognises the level of opposition to its plans, but it is convinced scrapping
corroboration is ‘the right thing to do’.
Is this the right thing to do?
Only if you are a cretin!
And the SNP wonder why no one is backing
their independence bid, it is because the Scottish people realise among other
things that they need the vital protection of the UK Supreme Court.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
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