Yesterday, the Scottish Lord Advocate Colin Boyd suddenly, and unexpectedly, resigned catching many MSPs in Holyrood completely off-guard. Today, the Scottish First Minister, Jack McConnell has announced that his nomination to replace Boyd be the current Scottish Solicitor General, Elish Angiolini.
The question is why did Boyd resign so suddenly? Could it be the forthcoming report into the Shirley McKie case? Or perhaps it's related to another report which is due from the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission into the Lockerbie Trial of the Libyan Abdelbaset al Megrahi? Boyd was the prosecutor in that case and there are rumours the report will bring about a retrial.
A little bit of Internet searching throws up a number of questionable things about the Scottish legal system which Boyd has presided over. Some of those things are probably wild conspiracy theory, but it;s often the case that below absurdity lies some element of truth which can be just as scandalous. No doubt we shall hear more in the coming weeks.
2 comments:
Jeepers, not a Lockerbie re-trial? I can't go through that again.
Best year of my life - I ran the trial media centre at the Court in Scotland / Holland.
I'll dig out my files!!
I think that Lord Boyd's resignation doesn't have anything to do with McKie or Lockerbie. WHile he ran the Lockerbie case it was initiated by his predecessor Lord HArdie (now a COurt of Session judge) and Boyd was not really involved in the action. Further any problems come in that regard not from Boyd but from the judicial decision of the panel of judges (and appeal judges) who explained their reasoning on the facts - something juries never do.
The McKie case is a little different but I'd be surprised if the result of the Justice committee enquiry would make any difference. The enquiry has inspired much Scottish media comment to little effect and has not always shown Ms McKie in the best light (when questioned by the committee and MSPs from constituences of the fingerprint officers involved) Ms McKie complained that she was being pursued on points and was in tears outside the committee room. If she and her father (a ubiquitous figure in the Scottish media for a long period of time earlier in the year) believe there should be a judicial inquiry (as is their publicly stated position) then they must realise that Ms McKie's conduct in the original case and subsequently will come into question. The enquiry of the Justice committee - as well as revealing evidence supporting the McKie case on the original fingerprint also brought out evidence that Ms McKie's legal team rejected expert evidence from at least one expert who had also positively identified Ms McKie as being the person responsible for the fingerprint - despite his having been commissioned by her legal team. I suspect firm conclusions will not come from that committee report and that the timing of Boyd's departure is more to do with having recently passed the record for being the longest serving Lord Advocate since 1900 and his desire to play a role in Westminster (and back at the private Scottish bar where he used to have an extensive planning appeal practice). Cock-up not conspiracy, in summary.
Scott
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