SCOTSMAN STILL NOT CLEARED

"The system" is still covering up for corrupt police. Once again "beyond reasonable doubt" is forgotten

One of the longest alleged miscarriages of justice cases took another twist this morning when Appeal Court judges rejected Stirlingshire man Stuart Gair's claims of innocence. Campaigners immediately expressed their disbelief at the decision in a case that is one of the highest profile in Scottish criminal history.

Stuart Gair arrived at the Court of Appeal today hoping his 16 year old murder conviction would be quashed. He said: "I'm hoping for the full justice, and I'm hoping that at the end of the day, the corrupt police officers involved are somehow, in some way, dealt with." Gair was accused of murdering Peter Smith in a Glasgow lane in 1989. At his trial, the key prosecution witness, William McLeod, said he saw Gair with a knife in the lane. Other witnesses, David Smith, Brian Morrison and Alan Gillon all put Gair at the crime scene. All four have since retracted their evidence claiming police officers blackmailed them into giving perjured evidence. Those retractions were effectively rejected in less than 20 seconds at the Appeal Court this morning.

Stuart Gair said: "I'm absolutely stunned that these people have refused an appeal that was absolutely solid. I'm absolutely stunned and shocked." John McManus from the Miscarriages of Justice Group said: "I must admit, I think we're all very shocked. I mean, Paddy Hill said something about 14 years ago, it was "it looks that these people can't spell justice, never mind dispense it", and I think that's what we've seen in there today. If this was about justice, then sure Gair would have won this today. I don't know what they're playing at. They seem to be scared of opening up the can of worms that shows the corruption that goes on in the convicts court."

The case does not end today. The judges will hear further grounds of appeal in the future.

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GROSS PROSECUTORIAL INCOMPETENCE NOT TERRIBLY SURPRISING IN STILL-COMMUNIST CHINA

The children of a Chinese butcher executed for murdering a waitress have appealed against his conviction after the "victim" turned up alive, the second such judicial blunder to be made public in recent weeks. Shi Xiaorong was 18 when she disappeared in 1987 at the same time as six pieces of a woman's body, sliced off "in a professional manner," were found in a river in southern Hunan province, a newspaper said Thursday.

Police arrested Teng Xingshan because he was a butcher by trade and because of rumors he used to go to the hotel where Shi worked to find prostitutes, the Beijing News said. Hunan Provincial Court sentenced Teng to death for murder despite an appeal and a signature campaign by hundreds of local villagers and officials. He was executed by gunshot in 1989. "He cried out he was innocent until he was at the execution ground," the newspaper quoted one of Teng's lawyers as saying.

Waitress Shi was later found to be serving a prison sentence with her husband for selling drugs, the newspaper said.

Wrongful convictions are not uncommon in China where a campaign has been launched to clean up the interrogation and trial process. In April, She Xianglin was freed after serving 11 years of a 15-year jail sentence in central Hubei province for murdering his wife when she turned up not only alive but with another man.

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