Luke Mitchell to be released by Supreme Court

Amidst much crying and carrying-on by Scottish politicians, the Supreme Court, an English court, will order the release from custody of Luke Mitchell, convicted of murder under Scots Law which at the time allowed initial interrogation without counsel. Under the Cadder decision allowing counsel at initial interrogation in accordance with the European Commission on Human Rights, Luke Mitchell was deemed to have been denied a fair trial.

Of course, why on earth a 14 year old boy whose dna was not found at the crime scene was tried when the three males whose dna was found at the crime scene were never considered suspects was not considered by the court. Nor did the court consider the massive press coverage about Luke Mitchell's supposed Satanism or fascination with Marilyn Manson simply because a Manson CD given to him a week after the murder was found in his house.

Amidst all the palaver about an English court being allowed to undermine Scots Law it should perhaps be remembered that if the Luke Mitchell case is an example of what Scottish police, Scottish prosecutors, Scottish judges and Scottish juries can do, then I submit that at long last Scots Law should indeed be undermined.

For those of you requiring an introduction to the Luke Mitchell case suffice it for me to say that the Lothian and Borders Constabulary promptly decided that fourteen year old Luke Mitchell would be considered the sole suspect in the murder of his fourteen year old girlfriend. The police did not seem at all troubled by Luke Mitchell having no scratches and having left no dna at the crime scene. The police therefore decided to ignore the three males whose dna was left on, in or inconveniently close by the corpse despite the fact that the three males had chosen to adopt various actions such as leaving the area, giving rather unusual explanations for their scratches and altering their appearance.

Soundly condemned by the press, termed a devotee of Satan and Marilyn Manson and banned from attending school Luke Mitchell endured hours of police questioning without benefit of counsel. After trial under circus-like conditions wherein he was denied the use of dna experts, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum term of confinement of twenty years even though it was clear that the notoriety of his case meant that he would serve the full life sentence without ever being allowed parole. Countless appeals to the Scottish Courts availed him naught. Even his petition of Nobile Officium presented at the Court of Inner Sessions fell on deaf ears.

Finally, the English Supreme Court will be ordering his release since his being denied counsel at the initial interrogation has been ruled to be a denial of fundamental human rights protected by the European Union. While Scottish politicians are bemoaning the destruction of Scots Law, it is perhaps time that we should all rejoice that at long last common sense seems to be prevailing.

For those of you who find such matters to be of interest, there appears to have been no comment made by the sister of the homicide victim who soon thereafter married one of the men whose semen was found on the victim’s tee shirt and underwear.

An earlier posting on this case is herewith set forth for the convenience of the readers:

A Final Incompetence …

Their Lordships, the five Justices of the High Court of Criminal Appeals, formally severed Luke Mitchell’s appeal from the proceedings since he was not then represented by counsel. This was done so as to give him additional time with which to seek the advice of counsel but the justices formally advised Luke Mitchell they would expect any such advice of counsel to be consonant with a recognition that the present proceedings as continuing against appellant Nat Fraser declared the grounds of the appeal to be legally incompetent.

Oh what a fine nicety of the law! We are not now denying your appeal because you don’t have a lawyer and we are giving you time to go get a lawyer but its obvious you will never be able to actually get a lawyer since we are now formally announcing your appeal to be legally incompetent.

What an awful mess. At age 14, Luke Mitchell gallantly set forth in the night to search for his overdue 14 year old girlfriend. Each and every member of the small search party stated to police that Luke’s dog created a ruckus at a small cleft in the wall and only then did Luke Mitchell proceed to discover the naked and woefully bloody corpse of his girlfriend. After extensive and persistent police questioning the witnesses changed their recollections as to the dog having located the corpse rather than Luke Mitchell having done so. This of course gave the police, the prosecutor and the press the opportunity to repeatedly point out that Luke Mitchell had guilty knowledge of the corpse’s location.

The press repeatedly harped on the fact that the injuries to the corpse bore a resemblance to the injuries suffered decades earlier in the Black Dahlia case that was oft mentioned by rock star Marilyn Manson. The press informed the public that Luke Mitchell was an obsessed fan of Marilyn Manson but failed to point out that there was not one reference on Luke’s computer to the Black Dahlia and that the only Marilyn Manson CD found in Luke’s home was one that was purchased after the murder. The press repeatedly described Luke Mitchell as a devotee of Satan but failed to point out that the school book scribbling they repeatedly described as satanic was in fact a quotation from a very popular computer game.

His girlfriend had struggled valiantly suffering extensive defensive wounds and almost total exsanguination but Luke Mitchell had nary a scratch nor a single drop of blood on him.

Although it was publicly announced that the crime was murder not rape semen was found on the girlfriend’s body yet it was not from Luke Mitchell.

Meanwhile the police, prosecutor, press and public show not the slightest interest whatsoever in a male known to have been fond of the location where the body was found, known to have appeared disheveled at the time, known to have borne the next morning facial scratches for which there were absurd and ever-changing explanations and known to have penned an essay about having killed a girl within a week of the murder.

Ah the ever so fine niceties of the law: we will give you additional time to try to get a lawyer to represent you in a futile appeal but we won’t even question much less arrest or prosecute the facially scratched violence-prone druggie and sex-offender whose dna was found on the corpse.

What is the use of having dna databases if such evidence as semen found on a murder victim is ignored? What is the use of having advanced forensics if a corpse is allowed to remain out in the woods unprotected from overnight rains and morning dew that will clearly wash away evidence deposited by the attacker? What is the use of having juries if they accept ownership of a Marilyn Manson CD as proof of murder? What is the use of having guidelines for the questioning of a 15 year old youth if all judges do is mildly rebuke the police for their obvious excesses?

Clearly, the one lesson to be learned is that when the police want you they will not shift their focus elsewhere. Obtaining counsel may availeth naught but going without counsel is utterly absurd. The police, prosecutor and press have all railroaded Luke Mitchell and allowed a known sex offender to go un-prosecuted.