KILLER Luke Mitchell will today launch a fresh bid for freedom with a 300-page dossier he hopes will win him a new appeal.
Mitchell was jailed for life in 2005 for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Jodi Jones.
The dossier, to be submitted to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) by his supporters, includes claims a Mitchell lookalike may have confused eyewitnesses.
Several legal experts worked behind the scenes on the application to the SCCRC – the body that probes potential miscarriages of justice and can refer cases back to the Appeal Court.
The lawyers, including at least one senior legal figure, are said to be so concerned by Mitchell's conviction, which relied on an entirely circumstantial case, that they donated their services free of charge.
The application says there are legal points that cause concern over the fairness of Mitchell's trial – including the way eye-witness evidence was used, the circumstances of his police interviews when he was aged just 15, and the prosecution's use of "prejudicial evidence", such as his disputed interest in the musician Marilyn Manson.
Mitchell, now 23, lost an appeal in 2008 over his conviction for the murder of 14-year-old Jodi, who was found stabbed to death in a wooded area behind a wall near her home in Easthouses, Midlothian.
Campaigner Sandra Lean, who has spearheaded the SCCRC application, said: "This is a vital new step in our fight to clear Luke's name. The commission will have the opportunity to review the case in its entirety."
Mrs Lean – who has led the campaign along with Mitchell's mother, Corinne – has been examining the case papers for the past nine months to prepare the submission. During that time both Mitchell and his mother, who provided his alibi, have passed lie detector tests.
Mrs Lean said: "The polygraph results are not admissible in court but we have included them in the application so investigators have the full picture.
"We believe the police became fixated upon Luke and had a closed mind about other potential suspects.
"We have found photographic evidence that shows one local man linked to the case after the trial bore a remarkable resemblance to Luke. Pictures of them both from around the time of the murder have been submitted to show the striking similarity, particularly in their hairstyles.
"This could cast doubt on the evidence of eyewitnesses who claim to have seen Luke near the scene at the time of the murder."
Mrs Lean added: "No DNA from Luke was found on Jodi but there were unidentified samples and one male DNA match from blood on her clothing. This was put down to an innocent transfer of DNA because, it was claimed, she had borrowed a soiled garment from another person.
"There are other potential suspects. We are not saying any of them were responsible for the crime, but we are pointing out our belief that police should have looked further afield than Luke.
"There are other concerns, including the way the crime scene was managed and the manner of the police questioning of Luke."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article